Publisher's Synopsis
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.
