Thousands of years ago, before Christopher Columbus landed in the Bahamas, a different group of people, nomadic ancestors of modern Native Americans discovered today's America.
Recently archaeologists found skeleton remains of an early Native American adult and a child that is around 2500 to 3000 years old. This discovery took place on a property of historic Duck's Nest residence in mid-October while workers were digging utility trenches.
Archaeologist Bob Carr said from the location they found largely fragmentary bones which have gone through centuries, most probably millennia. The remains were found in locations about 60 feet apart. He mentioned that in many cases the bone fragments would not be identified as human bones as most people would think that it was a rock or piece of root.
Duck's Nest and excavation
The Duck's Nest which was built in 1891 is being renovated into a guest house by the new owners who bought the lakefront house in 2018 from its previous owner Maddock family. But all work was stopped as the Florida Division of Historic Resources conducted a review of the site where the bones were found.
The historic resource division communicated with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which is one of three federally recognized Seminole entities, along with Nation of Oklahoma and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.
The division is making sure that the remains were recovered scientifically, treated respectfully and documented appropriately. It should be noted that Carr's firm, the Archaeological Historical Conservancy in Davie held these newly found human remains and once the utility work gets over they will be reinterred near where the bones were found.
Archaeological site
As mentioned at least 25 sites in the town which are documented as archaeologically significant and such skeletons were found on about 10 of those. "We are finding evidence of indigenous of people, Native Americans, living here, going back at least 2,500 years," Carr said adding that "The island was intensely used. At any given time there were certainly hundreds, maybe 1000 or 2000 people. It's probably one of the richest areas in Southeast Florida for fishing and hunting."
He also mentioned that after examination of early animal bones and shell remains archaeologists found more details about the early Native Americans as well as their diet and how they exploited their habitat.
History of Native Americans
Ancestors of modern Native Americans hiked over a "land bridge" from Asia to what is called now as Alaska more than 12,000 years ago. Experts estimated that by the time European adventurers arrived in the 15th century AD, over 50 million people were already living in the Americas and among them, almost 10 million lived in the area that would become the US.
