Overview

Did humans live in Florida during the Ice Age?   In 1916, to the shock of the science world, a Florida geologist discovered human remains mixed with the bones of prehistoric animals in a Vero Beach canal and proclaimed that humans had lived in North America since the Ice Age. Elias Sellards’s findings flew in the face of prevailing wisdom, which held that humans first came to the continent only 6,000 years ago. His claim was snubbed by the top scientists of his day; he was laughed out of the state; and the skull he found—famously known as “Vero Man”—was lost. An Ice Age Mystery tells the story of Sellards’s exciting find and the controversy it sparked. In the years that followed, other archaeological discoveries and the rise of radiocarbon dating established that humans did arrive in North America earlier than previously thought, and many people began to wonder: what exactly had Sellards found at Vero? And what else might be buried there? One hundred years after the first Vero discovery, construction plans threatened to cover up the legendary dig site and a band of citizens and archaeologists protested. Excavations were reopened. Archaeologists uncovered 14,000-year-old burnt mammal bones and charcoal, signs of a human presence, and further found evidence to indicate a continuous human occupation of the site for over several thousand years. Sellards had been right all along. As the dig continues today, questions remain. Who were these people? Where did they come from? And how did they get here? This book draws readers into the past, present, and future of one of the most historic discoveries in American archaeology.

Full Product Details

9780813054377

Table of Contents

Reviews

Since its discovery long ago, the complete story of the Old Vero Site has never been told. This is an informative and entertaining account of this remarkable site and its history in American archaeology. -Tom D. Dillehay, author of The Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory Johnson skillfully weaves a tale of prehistoric life in Florida with the 100 year search to understand that long lost world at the Vero Site. -Andy Hemmings, Florida Atlantic University Johnson has thoroughly investigated, and transformed into a very readable narrative, an entire century of accumulated knowledge about the research, controversy, and curiosity surrounding the Old Vero archaeological site. -Barbara Purdy, author of Florida's People During the Last Ice Age Compelling and engaging. -Robert S. Carr, author of Digging Miami A fascinating recounting of the early discovery of a Paleolithic human and the issues that were engendered by various opposing scientific views. -Dennis Stanford, coauthor of Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture

Since its discovery long ago, the complete story of the Old Vero Site has never been told. This is an informative and entertaining account of this remarkable site and its history in American archaeology. -Tom D. Dillehay, author of The Settlement of the Americas: A New Prehistory Johnson skillfully weaves a tale of prehistoric life in Florida with the 100 year search to understand that long lost world at the Vero Site. -Andy Hemmings, Florida Atlantic University Johnson has thoroughly investigated, and transformed into a very readable narrative, an entire century of accumulated knowledge about the research, controversy, and curiosity surrounding the Old Vero archaeological site. -Barbara Purdy, author of Florida's People During the Last Ice Age Compelling and engaging. -Robert S. Carr, author of Digging Miami A fascinating recounting of the early discovery of a Paleolithic human and the issues that were engendered by various opposing scientific views. -Dennis Stanford, coauthor of Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture

Author Information

Rody Johnson is the author of several books including Chasing the Wind: Inside the Alternative Energy Battle, The Rise and Fall of Dodgertown: 60 Years of Baseball in Vero Beach, and Different Battles: The Search for a World War II Hero.

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