Rings within Rings: The Mysterious Miami Circle
by Brandy Buchanan
Rings within Rings: The Miami Circle
It was a muggy Miami day in September of 1998 when a survey team arrived for a routine investigation at a 2.06 acre parcel of land near the southern bank of the Miami River.
Already, the land held historic significance. It may have once been part of the Brickell Hammock, a coastal tropical hardwood forest. It also stood as part of the original property where the pioneering Brickell family established a trading post in South Florida during the 1870s. It had been cleared in the early 19th century and was planted with a coconut palm grove that existed until 1949. In the 1950s, it held six low-rise apartment buildings that were razed in 1998. Now, it was preparing for its latest tenants: two high rise apartment buildings that developers were eager to begin building.
The discovery of several unique carvings in the bedrock beneath the site halted any attempts at construction.
Scientists decided to investigate this mysterious area further. In December of 1998 the team fully realized the extent of what they had found. A complete circle, with a diameter of 38 feet, had been carved into the bedrock. Many believe the find, now dubbed the "Miami Circle", is very significant. It is one of the most complete prehistoric structural footprints cut into bedrock within the eastern part of North America.
The Miami Circle is characterized by 24 rectangular basins ranging in size from one foot to about three feet in length, varying in width between 18 and 24 inches. Most are cut to a depth of 12 to 18 inches below the bedrock's surface. The contents found within the basins include limestone rocks, black midden soil, animal bone, marine shell, and the occasional artifact.
In addition to these cut basins are more than 500 circular post holds that have been documented within the vicinity of the Miami Circle.
Also discovered were a buried shark and sea turtle, an eye motif cut into the rock, a basaltic ax offering, and other items suggesting that the circle had ceremonial significance. Radiocarbon dating, testing two charcoal samples selected from the cut basins and the midden within the circle, put the site's origin to circa 100 C.E.
The Miami Circle and its artifacts were found in a remarkably well preserved state. The placement of fill dirt below the Brickell Apartment buildings reduced most of the adverse impact of their construction to the site. At least 85% of the Miami Circle's features are intact.
Human occupation at the site may date back two thousand years into the circle's past, most likely to an early Florida Native American tribe, the Tequesta. The tribe lived from 1450 BCE through the mid-1700's and settled primarily in the southern section of Florida. Well adapted to the Florida climate, they chose locations based upon availability of fresh water, and had a high seafood diet. Their rivals were the Calusa, another extinct Native American tribe who held strong roots in Florida.
An article published in the Miami Herald on July 4, 2001, reveals tests that exposed the bones of at least 12 people who lived 500 BCE to 500 CE. Scientists did not remove the bones or artifacts from the site, instead choosing to dig 41 small "test" holes, each at about 50 foot intervals. However, such a high percentage of finds indicate that up to 50 to 100 bodies were buried in the area. The Circle may have served as a Tequestea cemetery.
The Miami Circle is marked with cardinal points for the north, south, east, and west. Rocks have been placed within the post holes at each of these points. The eye-like cut basin marks the east. Some believe that the site had ceremonial importance to the equinox and solstice due to the alignments of these markers, though that has yet to be proven.
Many archeologists believe that the Circle once supported posts for the inner footprint of a Tequesta structure, perhaps a council house or temple. It is believed that the square basins represent holes used for the placement of wooden posts. This hypothesis is reinforced by the observation of several basins with rocks inside that appear to have rested against posts, as well as the carefully fashioned circular holes within many of the basins.
Miami Circle surveyor T. L. Riggs, the investigator who first discovered the Miami Circle, argues against the Tequesta theory. He believes that the site is actually an "American Stonehenge" and that it dates back to a worldwide ring of standing stone circles.
Riggs claims that his own independent research has allowed him to find six of the original stones that were used in the Circle's construction. He believes the Miami Circle is a 1/3 scale replica of Stonehenge itself, also citing its astronomical alignments which, like Stonehenge, mark the solstices and equinoxes.
Other sources have called the Miami Circle a remnant of Atlantis, or even a corner of the Bermuda Triangle, while others regularly hold New Age peace vigils at the site.
One bold theory created by Jerald T. Milanich, an archaeologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, asserts the Circle is nothing more than the remains of an old septic tank. Milanich believes the holes look like part of an overflow drain. He proposes that the state dig further in the site of the Brickell Apartment buildings to find some of the other known septic tanks, and compare them to the Circle. Most scientists disagree with the theory. Thus far, no one has attempted to find the old septic tanks for a comparison.
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The "eye" stone at the Miami Circle. It is at the eastern cardinal point of this ancient site.
There is a possiblilty that others knew of the circle prior to 1998. Boo Ehrsam reported that her mother - in -law knew of a "harbor" buried underneath the apartment buildings in 1969.
An expert taken with permission from Boo's e-mail:
She wasn't really into archeology. She just told me that there was something
beneath the apts. They thought at the time it might be some kind of harbor.
She worked at the Everglades Hotel managing the restaurant. Who knows, she
might have overheard gossip form contractors or the like. I doubt the apt.
builders would have cared for the state finding out. Had that happened, they
might have been prevented from building the apts. which were quite costly to
live in! (Great view).....Boo!
I am thrilled to be able to say something about the Miami Circle. I've been
appalled since its "discovery" that no one has mentioned it was known about
before. But who knows? Maybe my Mother-in Law, in her capacity as manager of
the Everglades Hotel's dining, overheard developers talking while at a meal. Maybe
she was privy to info never shared with the state, or maybe someone in the state
was paid off. Well, its easy to conjecture now.....Boo!
