ICE AGE MAN
VeroBeach100.org City of Vero Beach 1919-2019 23
needle close by. Only post Ice Age projectile
points were found. Volunteers made
many similar finds in the overburden of
Mount Vero, but in these disturbed soils
the items had no context.
At the annual conference of the American
Society of Archaeologists in Washington
in April, Adovasio reported the results
from the four-year excavation. Using state
of the art methods and protocols, environmental,
geological, and archaeological
material and knowledge were collected
that defined the site far more than was
possible 100 years ago. A total of 195
species of animals and plants have been
documented.
The tapir with the bone needlepoint is
an indication, but not proof, of an Ice Age
presence. The projectile points of a more
recent time showed that people had been
on the site 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. Furthermore,
the piece of textile weave found
was similar to the material in which skeletons
were buried at Windover Bog near
Titusville at a similar time. This indicated
burials at Vero as well.
While there were no Ice Age artifacts
found at the site, the discovery of a
12,000-year-old Clovis projectile point in a
ditch on the Hornbuckle farm 3 miles away
showed that humans were indeed present
in the Vero area at that time.
DIG PROVED POPULAR
The dig was completed in May 2017.
During the excavations, almost 2,000 people
toured the site and articles describing
the project were published in newspapers
and journals nationwide. More than 100
radiocarbon dates were taken. Analysis of
the findings is continuing.
More remains to be learned about the
Vero site. Exploratory corings have identified
a promising location for a future dig.
For the local community and Vero’s
many visitors, the nucleus of a future
museum-quality exhibit that depicts the
importance of the history and recent
excavation of the Old Vero Site has been
installed by the committee in Indian River
State College’s Brackett Library. F
Sources: An Ice Age Mystery, University Press
of Florida, 2017, by Rody Johnson; Preliminary
Assessment of Recent Research at the
Old Vero Site, J.M. Adovasio, et al., presented
at the Annual Meeting of the Society of
American Archaeology, Washington, D.C.,
April 2018.
OVIASC
Members of a field crew use trowels as they meticulously collect material to be screened.
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