For the last 800 years, the Brickell site in the urban center of Miami, Florida has been enormously lucky. An apartment house was built over the top of it; a sewage line just missed the edge of the now-famous stone circle; a septic tank was placed in the center. But now, a development project including twin condominium towers and a parking garage, a project costing US$126 million which might generate as much as US$1 million a year in property taxes for the city of Miami, may finally end the luck of the Brickell site.

In the summer of 1998, construction began at the proposed Brickell Pointe complex. The preliminary work included the removal of the existing structure, an apartment building. Beneath the rubble was identified a circle of holes carved into the limestone bedrock. The circle, located at the mouth of the Miami River as it dumps into Biscayne Bay, measures 38 feet across and is clearly ceremonial in nature. Many of the carved holes are in shapes suggesting marine animals: manatee, lobster, shrimp, dolphin, turtle, shark. At the easternmost point, an oval opening has been carved in the shape of a human eye, with a round rock in the middle for a pupil. Artifacts associated with this circle include potsherds and shell beads that suggest the structure was made by the Tequesta Native Americans. The Tequesta lived in the Miami area from about 3,500 B.C. until 1760 A.D; they were there when the Spanish explorer Ponce de Léon landed, in 1513. The stone circle was likely constructed around 1100 AD; the site itself was first occupied approximately 2,000 years ago. Also included in the assemblage are basalt axes, of a raw material likely imported from the Caribbean Islands.

Archaeological investigations at the 2.3 ac site have been ongoing since August; an area measuring around 40 square feet has been excavated to date. Up to now, developer Michael Baumann has been cooperative, not to say downright helpful; although the city provided him a permit to begin bulldozing on February 1st, he gave another month to the archaeologists to continue the excavation. But that's coming to an end: the developer plans to begin bulldozing on the 28th of February. The Brickell site has strong support from Native American leaders and archaeologists all over the world. The Dade Heritage Trust has set up a fund for donations from the public; but despite this, no good alternative has been found. The developer isn't interested in selling or altering his plans; he has a legitimate permit from the city to construct the condominium. Plans to cut the site out of the bedrock, to be paid for by Baumann, are considered only as a last resort; to some, this is worse than letting it be destroyed. What the Brickell site doesn't have is time.

There are no perfect solutions; because conflicting interests are never easy to solve. Last year, Miami teetered on the brink of bankruptcy; the income from the Brickell Pointe complex is needed to complete the city's recovery. People live in the same places they've always lived, and archaeological sites will be unprotected as long as there are not laws to protect them. Legislation to protect such sites is difficult to pass, because governments need projects that bring in property taxes to run their programs, and populations in cities continue to grow. Often the choice is between the needs of the living people, and the protection of our past. The only real defense possible is a legislative structure that provides some consideration to the past.

The problem of the continuing destruction of archaeological sites in the face of modern day development is a global problem. It will continue, regardless of the outcome of the Brickell site.