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Archaeologists unearth 1,700 year-old canal system near Lake Okeechobee By Rhonda Miller sun-sentinel.com Posted June 6 2002, 6:17 PM EDT ORTONA – Archaeologists on Thursday said they have uncovered a sophisticated 1,700 year-old canal system and a huge pond dug by ancient Indians near this tiny town, located west of Lake Okeechobee. The canal site is so important that it could rival the discovery four years ago of the mysterious Miami Circle ruins near downtown Miami, one expert said. Ortona, population 500, is located on Route 78 and is 13 miles west of Moore Haven. The town is sited just...

the Florida Department of Environmental Protection... Acquisition and Restoration Council will be stopping by Manatee County for a public hearing on whether the state should help purchase three properties in Florida, including the mound... A group of residents living near the mound, a Native American activist and a local archaeologist have already said they will show up at the meeting Monday. The South Florida Museum decided to sell the 1-acre tract holding the mound because it didn't fit their educational mission. The land was donated to the museum. Since the sale became known, neighbors, preservationists, archaeologists and the Florida American...

The 2,000-year-old site remains under temporary protection laid in 2003. Nine years ago, an array of American Indians, environmentalists, preservationists, New Age spiritualists, diviners, even Cub Scouts rose up to save the Miami Circle, a 2,000-year-old artifact that many embraced as America's own Stonehenge. But today, the Circle -- a series of loaf-shaped holes chiseled into the limestone bedrock at the mouth of the Miami River -- is interred beneath bags of sand and gravel, laid over the formation in 2003 to protect it from the elements. And though taxpayers shelled out $27.6 million to purchase the 38-foot Circle and...

Mark Grasmueck can see underground and, without hardly anyone noticing, he has been peeking below downtown Miami. Grasmueck, a University of Miami geophysicist, is quietly working with archaeologists on the planned One Miami development in the heart of Miami just north of the Dupont Plaza hotel -- a site that almost certainly harbors ancient treasure. What he sees as far as 20 feet under the asphalt -- and how he sees it -- could revolutionize archaeology, help experts assure the purity of our drinking water and reveal new details of South Florida's 120,000-year-old limestone foundation. ''The deeper you go, the...

The Miami Circle, discovered in 1998 amid much controversy, will be covered up again -- possibly for years -- while officials figure out how to open it to the public.Ancient stone carving in city will be reburied.MIAMI CIRCLEFive years after the Miami Circle was unearthed and saved from the bulldozers, it will be reburied Friday -- a stark concession that officials have been unable to open the archaeological treasure to the public, which paid $26.7 million to preserve it. Prominent archaeologist Robert Carr said the ancient 38-foot-wide stone carving is eroding and must be protected from the elements as several...

Bones at Miami Circle suggest beheading rite BY MARTIN MERZER mmerzer@herald.com Two human bones found inside the Miami Circle suggest a gory purpose of the ancient carving now surrounded by hotels, banks and offices: Scientists believe severed human heads were displayed there, possibly as a warning to enemies. ''We think we have found evidence of mortuary activities at the Circle,'' said archaeologist Robert Carr, one of the discoverers of the enigmatic 38-foot-wide stone artifact that was unearthed four years ago in downtown Miami. The two bones -- a C1 vertebra and a C2 vertebra -- were from different people and...

Human remains unearthed in Miami form picture of Tequesta Indian life By Madeline Baró Diaz Miami Bureau Posted January 19 2006 Ancient Florida history is meeting the modern building boom in downtown Miami, where archaeological excavations at two construction sites have unearthed 2,000-year-old human remains. Archaeologists said the discoveries are helping them piece together what life was like for the ancestors of the Tequesta Indians, who lived at the mouth of the Miami River in what is now the Brickell section of Miami. Archaeologists had previously found evidence of a village in the area, but not a cemetery. The remains...