Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A careful dig

You may recall the Big Dig --- the huge project that re-routed I-93 through the heart of Boston.  Well, I’m going to talk about a Careful Dig -- the excavation of the Old Vero Ice Age Site near the Vero Beach Municipal Airport.  Careful digging began in early January and will continue till May.  Archaeologists and volunteers are looking for evidence that humans lived there at the end of the Ice Age 13-thousand years ago.  Back around 1915, canal dredging at the site unearthed animal fossils and parts of human skeletons.  One set of 44 bones became known world-wide as “Vero Man.”  Scientists disagreed on the age of the bones.  Interest in the Vero Man site was revived in 2009 with the discovery of a fossilized animal bone not far away.  Etched on the bone is the figure of a mastodon – a pre-historic work of art.  The Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee was formed.  It contracted with the Mercyhurst Archaeology Institute at Mercyhurst University in Erie, P-A, to supervise excavation of the site and analyze whatever is dug up.  One committee member called it “a knowledge hunt.”  To volunteer for the Careful Dig or to make a donation, put “old Vero ice age” in your browser’s search box and click on the link to the committee’s website.  For 88.9 FM, this is Paul Janensch.