Publication Date: 04/25/09
It's well known that St. Augustine 's valued place in history rests on documents of earlier eras and what comes out of the ground.
Without the maps and interpretations of the Spanish and their arrival here in 1565, we would be hard-pressed to call ourselves the nation's oldest permanently occupied European settlement in today's United States .
What keeps coming out of the ground solidifies our place in history.
Coins, animal skeletons, broken glass, almost intact pottery, buttons, bits of fabrics, religious medals, rosaries, crosses, cooking, sewing and every life utensils, for example, have fascinated us and our visitors for years as they have been carefully lifted from dirt coverings centuries old. Actual foundations of buildings have validated properties listed on maps, too.
But this past week, a new artifact surfaced, literally: a hinged jawbone from a 19th-century doll skeleton was found in a city dig at Spanish and Cuna streets. It reminds us of the importance of the city's 22-year-old archaeological ordinance. The ordinance requires a dig in certain parts of St. Augustine on public and private property before construction is done. Without it, we'd be losing history every day.
St. Augustine City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt and his volunteers certify our history every day they're on a job. He's been the city's official historical dirt digger since 1990. The St. Augustine Archaeological Association, founded in 1985, is composed mostly of volunteers focused on preserving our history. State-sponsored and privately funded archaeological digs as well, have been around for more than 70 years.
Without the archaeology ordinance, we hate to think what would happen to a lot of our city's tangible past.
*
If you want to get involved or have a school tour of an archaeological dig in St. Augustine , call Halbirt at 825-1088.
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/042509/opinions_042509_059.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
No comments:
Post a Comment