The construction site in Highland Beach.
Cheryl Blackerby/The Coastal Star
By Cheryl Blackerby
In March 2003, workers were digging a trench for underground utility pipes at the Sea Frolic hotel in Highland Beach when they came across something unexpected and disturbing — human bones buried about three feet deep.
A routine construction site suddenly turned into a crime scene. Highland Beach police and the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office were called, and the bones were taken to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner. Police tape surrounded the area.
The 22 bones turned out to be that of a woman about 30 years old and a child about 2.
And there was a surprising twist in this case: The bones were about 1,000 or more years old.
It was a lucky break for archaeologists who had a rare opportunity to examine Florida’s ancient history in an area covered with condominiums and parking lots. A stop-work order was issued, giving a team of Florida Atlantic University archaeologists 13 days to examine the ground.
Spanish River Complex. SOURCE: Christian Davenport (Palm Beach County Archaeologist)
Ten years later, the Sea Frolic, at 4521 S. Ocean Blvd., has been torn down to make way for private residences, and archaeologists are fuming because they were not given the chance to look at what they think is an Indian burial mound.
They believe it is part of a well-known and well-documented ancient graveyard adjacent to the Sea Frolic, where more than 160 skeletons were found in the 1970s. That burial mound is under what is now the Parker Highland condominium.
Site examined before
Florida Atlantic University archaeologist Dr. Jerry Kennedy was called in to examine the Sea Frolic site 10 years ago. Researchers will never know how the the young woman died, whether it was injury or disease, he said, and even the tribe is unknown because they didn’t get a chance to examine the bones for disease or do DNA testing.
The bones were interred at the site where they were found. The burial was overseen by the Miccosukee Tribe, who along with the Seminole Tribe have jurisdiction over ancient Native American bones.
In his 2003 report, Kennedy wrote to the state archaeologist that there should be an archaeological review of the site if the ground was disturbed in the future.
“We recommended that any further construction or maintenance from A1A east to the beach be monitored by a professional archaeologist,” Kennedy recalled as he looked over the lengthy report in an FAU office in August. “We said the site warrants additional excavation, and that it’s not a separate site but part of the burial mound.”
The city of Highland Beach and the project’s builder Darrin Dunlea, owner of Seadar Builders, say they didn’t know about the archaeological site.
But even if they had known, the city is not required to contact the county or state archaeologists in order to issue a building permit on a known burial ground unless the city has a historic preservation ordinance that specifies they should. Highland Beach does not have such an ordinance, said City Manager Kathleen Weiser.
Some cities do request such services from Palm Beach County Archaeologist Christian Davenport, however.
“Highland Beach is not required to contact the County Historic Preservation Officer/Archaeologist as they are their own governing body,” Davenport said. “However, my services can be requested from a municipal government. I have worked for West Palm Beach, Delray and Boynton Beach.”
“But if human remains are found on the present construction site, the state must be contacted,” he said.
“A stop-work order would be issued if human remains were illegally disturbed,” said State Archaeologist Dr. Daniel Seinfeld. “If someone intentionally disturbed human burials, they could be subject to punishment under Florida statutes. Anyone who has information about exposed or disturbed human remains is required by law to report this information to law enforcement authorities.”
Many sites on coast
Ancient village sites are scattered on the east coast from Miami to Jupiter. In 2010, bones were uncovered during construction in the 900 block of South Ocean Boulevard in Delray Beach. Police were called, then archaeologists. There was a brief stop-work order, the bones were studied, then reinterred at the site where they were found. And construction resumed.
The town of Palm Beach has recently wrestled with how to protect archaeological sites. In June, the Town Council passed an ordinance that required residents who live on known sites to pay for an archaeological assessment. But a month later, the council voted to rescind the measure after hearing residents’ complaints that it was a costly duplication of state law.
Robert Carr, executive director of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy in Davie which has documented more than 1,000 archaeological sites throughout Florida, believes the burial ground at Parker Highland condominium likely covers the Sea Frolic property and beyond, as well as under A1A.
“Unfortunately so many sites have been destroyed because of intensive development,” Carr said. Florida statutes, he said, don’t tell property owners they can’t build on archaeological sites.
Dating the Highland Beach site is difficult, say archaeologists, which is partly why they want the opportunity to further study the site.
“The artifacts (at the Highland Beach burial mound) date the site to Glades I, which ranges between 1000 B.C. to A.D. 750,” Davenport said. “It is just one part of a much larger archaeological site complex — the Spanish River Complex — that includes the Highland Beach Site(s), Barnhill Mound (the Boca Raton Sand Mound), and the Boca Raton Midden.”
Carr believes the bones in the burial mound were from the Jaega tribe, who are believed to have lived in Southeast Florida from about 500 to 1700 A.D. “They moved about in canoes, gathered shellfish, conchs and oysters, and traveled the Intracoastal lagoons and inlet,” he said.
The men were 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-8 tall and the women were 5-foot to 5-foot-3 — much taller than the Spanish explorers who encountered them.
“Any development in Highland Beach needs to be subject to archaeological review, to make sure these kinds of sites are documented before they’re destroyed,” he said.
Carr, Miami-Dade County’s first archaeologist, is author of Digging Miami, published last year and the first book on the Jaega and other southeast Florida tribes.
“I think the burial ground at Parker Highland and Sea Frolic is one of the more spectacular burial mounds,” said Kennedy.
Small towns need to be more cognizant of what’s beneath their feet, he said. “It would be nice if there was an awareness of history.”
On Sept. 18, 2003, the remains of the woman and child were wrapped in cloth and put in a metal container with a laminated card identifying it as a Native American reburial belonging to a burial mound.
It was buried three feet deep in the area they were found — perhaps under the 15-foot high mound of bulldozed sand at the site in late August.
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