Archaeologists have unearthed a prehistoric village at the site of a $600 million dollar office and residential development in downtown Miami, CNN reported Wednesday.
The team discovered pieces of pottery and holes carved into the limestone ground. The holes are the foundations of a village from the Tequesta Native Americans. Dating back to 500-600 B.C., the Tequesta settlement was located at the meetings of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay, which is now metro Miami, CNN reported.
"We got to the point in recent months where we realized this wasn't an isolated circle or structure but a whole complex of buildings," archaeologist Bob Carr told CNN.
Carr said the Tequesta vanished in the 1700s when the British took over Florida from Spain.
"In some ways, I would say it's probably the best preserved prehistoric town plan in eastern North America," Carr told CNN.
Carr's company first began digging up the village in 2005 when they were hired to historically analyze the site.
Carr's team had to halt their excavations because of the recession, but resumed their work in October 2012. Since then they have unearthed thousands of holes in the ground. The Tequesta, who lived in southern Florida for nearly 2,000 years, used the holes to position pine posts that framed their buildings, CNN reported.
The discovery, though rich in history, poses a problem for developers of the Metropolitan Miami complex, which has been in the works for over 10 years. The Tequesta village site is supposed to be the home of Met Square, a new apartment and retail building with a movie theater, CNN reported.
Miami's Historic Preservation Board has yet to approve the Met Square plans.
Met Square "is a critical element of the entire plan, and the developer needs to meet the schedule," Metropolitan Miami developer lawyer Gene Stearns told CNN.
"It's already been delayed for the years it took to do this analysis, and it's time here to move on."
The developers suggested building a reconstructed Tequesta village to go on display in Met Square, using the original limestone holes.
But Ryan Franklin of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy said placing a part of the village on display could ruin its historic value.
"If you have a book and you tear out a chapter, you lose the integrity of the book," Franklin told WFOR in Miami. "You might have this part of it, but you lose part of the story."
