Created: 6/2/2006 7:45:33 PM 
By Jessica Clark First Coast News
ST. AUGUSTINE, FL -- A couple of wooded acres in St. Augustine could be a gold mine... one made up of little pieces.
"It's exciting, you know," Carl Halbirt said. He's the City of St. Augustine's archaeologist.
Halbirt was called to excavate this site, off of San Carlos Avenue just north of the Fountain of Youth, before its landowner builds some houses on it.
Halbirt and his colleagues have discovered what he says could be the most significant Timucuan site in St. Augustine dating back to between 1100 A.D. and 1300 A.D.... that's a couple of decades before Pedro Menendez settled St. Augustine.
"We are learning something about what their diet was like, how they utilized their space, and what kind of exchange network they had," Halbirt said.
Halbirt has discovered a Timucuan home with post hole impressions, pottery pieces from as far as Macon, Georgia, and even two human skeletons.
"We documented their location but we didn't excavate. In fact we've covered them over. We're hoping we can work things out with the property owner so the human remains will not be disturbed. We hope we'll be able to make some type of arrangements so [the skeletons] can stay where they are," Halbirt said.
The findings give a glimpse of life in the nation's oldest city, before Europeans started keeping track.
"When you put everything together, it starts to paint a picture," Halbirt said.
It's a picture made up of thousands of little pieces found in the dirt on those couple of acres.
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