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Preface: More than Just Seashells
- University Press of Florida
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Preface More than Just Seashells If urban archaeology in Miami has accomplished anything during the past thirty years, it is that it has forged a sense of community from the flotsam of artifacts and sites representing ten thousand years of human endeavor. To reach back and touch the source of who we are and to know that Miami is more than the dream of entrepreneurs to create a tourist mecca and a city built on top of dredged rock and sand is to move closer to the truth. Archaeology matters because we are curious and vain about ourselves. We are often temporal-centric in believing that we are living in the best of times and astonished that humans could have been fulfilled in that ancient dark age of B.C. (before computers). Though living in the high rise of civilization may have its rewards, with endless choices of products, restaurants , and leisure time, it is the look backward that can illuminate our understanding of who we are. Below our high-rise view of modern life is the basement of civilization, where concrete blocks are underlain by nineteenth-century red bricks, and below the bricks are the wooden post molds of Indian houses constructed a thousand years before. Who is to say with authority that today’s Miami is somehow superior to the ancient Miami of endless forests and sweet water rushing seaward in the Miami River from the Everglades. We have reshaped the land, cut its forest , and bulldozed most every square foot in the county at least once. Some downtown properties are on their fourth generation of new buildings, each construction preceded by the demolition of an older building that had become obsolete. Only the hammock forests that survive at Simpson Park, Alice Wainwright Park, and the Deering Estate at Cutler have missed the ache of heavy equipment gouging deep into the muck and limestone, stripping the skin of rich organic soils to create the economy of modern life. It is this enterprise of progress that continues to erase the monuments and traces of the indigenous people and historic pioneers. Ironically, it is Preface xii this same progress that has uncovered much of the archaeological record described in this book. The yin-yang of archaeological discovery is that it is often the very act of new development that creates the opportunity to discover what has lain dormant for centuries. It is a favorable testimony to county and city governments that the permit that allows new development often requires another permit to document the vestiges of the archaeological record that may be disturbed or destroyed. Surprisingly, this oversight has accounted for over 90 percent of Miami-Dade County’s archaeological discoveries. By 2012, forty-two archaeological sites and zones had been designated within the county. Interestingly, state and federal preservation laws had no effect on the discovery or preservation of the Miami Circle. Likewise , all of the sites uncovered on Brickell Avenue and at Crandon Park on Key Biscayne after Hurricane Andrew would have been destroyed during the post-hurricane cleanup if not for local ordinances. The rich archaeological deposits at Villa Serena would have been lost to landscape redevelopment if not for the implementation of the City of Miami preservation ordinance. And there are dozens of other examples throughout the county of local efforts creating a public good by documenting and preserving sites that are exempt from any state or federal regulations. Who benefits from local historic and archaeological preservation? We do. By becoming custodians and not just consumers of the land, we assure our community that the important monuments of the human experience will not disappear or be marginalized by appearing only in photographs, interpretive signs, or displays of artifacts in a museum. Not that these interpretative measures lack great educational value, but preservation of an archaeological site can assure the public a sense of place and provide a bank of scientific data that can be carefully assessed by future scholars. Protecting the past need not involve the taking of property. In some cases, pending developments have required green space areas and archaeological sites can be used to meet those green space requirements. It’s worth noting that since 1980, all of Miami-Dade County’s archaeological designations have proceeded without lawsuits because existing regulatory land-use guidelines have been balanced with a respect for private property rights. Common sense and bureaucratic flexibility allow sites to be documented by archaeological investigations and innovative preservation, such as the last...