INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Dick Kerr, vice-chairperson of the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee, and Mercyhurst University archeology professor Andy Hemmings told the Indian River County Commission today that excavation of one of the most important ice-age historical sites in the world will begin in January and proceed through May.
The OVIA Committee is a private organization raising funds to match money provided by Mercyhurst to pay for the $400,000 dig, which will take place in the angle between U.S. 1 and Aviation Boulevard, on the bank of the main relief canal behind County Administration Building B.
The site is already well known worldwide in scientific circles as the location where the famous Vero Man fossilized skeleton was found in 1915. The fossil, now believed to be the bones of a female, may be the oldest human remains ever found in North America.
“This has been talked about for a long time, and I know some people wondered if it was ever going to actually happen,” said Kerr. “Well, it is happening — in January. Mercyhurst University is one of the leading universities in studies of the ice age and our lead archeologist, Dr. Andy Hemming, is one of the world’s top experts. Mercyhurst is providing enormous support for the project which will bring tremendous national and international attention to Vero Beach.”
Dr. Hemming said that during the Pleistocene era, or ice age, the shore of the ocean was 50 miles east of where it is today and the water table was much lower. That made the dig site, then a small lake, the only source of water for a considerable distance and a central gathering point for humans and animals.
He said the area is known to contain an exceptional range of historically significant artifacts, including plant, animal and human remains not found at any other archeological site.
Hemmings, who earned his master’s and doctoral degrees at the University of Florida, said the excavation would take place beneath a Weatherport, which is a metal and plastic Quonset-hut type structure that will protect the dig and artifacts from wind, rain and unwanted public interference.
Recovered artifacts will be sent to Mercyhurst, a Catholic University in Pennsylvania, for evaluation, and later returned to Vero Beach.
Kerr said his group is working to find or create a permanent repository for whatever Dr. Hemmings and his student assistants find, as well as for other ancient objects from the canal bank area that have been dispersed to other locations during the past 98 years.
To learn more about the Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee, visit www.oviasc.org.