Michael Emilio

You never know what you’ll find in Brickell Avenue nowadays.

A downtown Miami development site is the home of the ancient human remains of the extinct native Tequesta tribe that inhabited South Florida thousands of years ago. Along with these human remains, the archaeologists also found pottery shards, animal bones and an arrowhead. Scientists estimate the artifacts to be 2,000 to 3,500 years old.

The development planned for the area is for 1814 Brickell Avenue, which is the eventual home of a 12-unit condominium building.

“This is not nearly at the scale of what we’ve seen in other downtown areas, but it was definitely a cemetery,” said archaeologist Robert Carr, who has discovered a number of Miami-Dade and Broward ancient sites, including the Miami Circle. “The question is the extent of it.”

According to Florida law, a full archaeological assessment is required of this site and the subsequent reburial of these remains in the original spot or as close as possible. This process obviously will delay construction of the 1814 Brickell Ave condo but does not require the project to be terminated. Angel Berisiartu, who is the vice president of developer IERI Incorporated, says that the human remains will be buried about 150 from their original location in a 50-foot-by-50-foot-wide natural depression.

“Time is money, and the archaeologists have been digging here since November,” Berisiartu said. “It’s very difficult to tell my investors that all this time has passed and all we have is a guy in a hole in the ground with a brush in his hand.”

The Tequesta Indian human remains were found in March by archaeologist Richard Haiduven, who was hired by the development firm. The laws of Miami require preconstruction archaeological explorations in certain areas including the Brickell area.

“This is really a continuation of a large area,” Haiduven said. “If you’re building in an archaeological area, you have to expect to find this.”

At the current Santa Maria condominium in Brickell Avenue archaeologists found human bones and the Miami Circle is home to a 38-foot-wide stone carving found in 1998.

Other areas in South Florida where remains have been found are Miami Lakes, North Miami Beach, Weston, and a development near the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Miami Fl.