Nation’s Top Archaeologists to Visit Old Vero Site Project

It’s been more than a century since construction crews exposed Pleistocene animal bones while dredging a drainage canal in Vero Beach, Fla. The Old Vero Site, overseen by Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) in partnership with the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee (OVIASC), is one of the oldest and largest archaeological digs of its kind. This month, top archaeologists from across the country will travel to the Treasure Coast to see it. 

As part of the Society of American Archaeologist’s (SAA) 81st annual conference in Orlando in April, archaeologists will take a day trip to the site to learn more about the excavation and research efforts.

“The SAA conference brings together some of the best researchers in the field and takes place annually all over North America,” said Megan Davis, Ph.D., HBOI interim executive director. “Having it be held so close to the Old Vero Site this year provides us with a unique opportunity to showcase the significance of this project to a prestigious group of archeologists from the around the nation.” 

The Old Vero Site has been called one of the most important early-man sites in the history of North American archaeology, after construction efforts on a drainage canal in 1913 exposed the well-preserved remains of Late Pleistocene flora and fauna in association with human remains and artifacts. The excavation work is being led by renowned archaeologists James M. Adovasio, Ph.D. and Andy Hemmings, Ph.D., who are headquartered at HBOI.

For more information, contact Carin Smith at 772-242-2230 or carinsmith@fau.edu, or visit www.fau.edu/hboi.