thumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailthumbnailEnlarged Item

previousMain MenuNextChipped Stone The Miami Circle produced almost 1500 pieces of chipped stone debitage and some finished tools. This is rare for sites in southern Florida where outcrops of chert do not exist. Archaeologist Robert Austin studied the chert tools and fragments from the Miami Circle and found examples of different types of chert from outcrops central Florida and the Tampa Bay area, some 320 km from the Miami.

Chipped stone artifacts from the site are mainly flakes, cores and unmodified cobbles, hammerstone fragments, bifaces (probably arrowheads or knives), unifaces, and microliths. The stone tool technology of the Miami Circle is most similar to that of the Fort Center site, located about 170 km from the Miami Circle, on the western side of Lake Okeechobee. Study of the chert tools and fragments from the Miami Circle are important in understanding exchange relationships that were active some 2,000 years ago in the Florida panhandle.

Austin also found distinct patterns within the Miami Circle excavation area. The spatial distribution of artifacts like stone tools, pumice and shell show similar concentrations, suggesting activity areas or concentrations related to prehistoric refuse dumping behavior.