http://www.herald.com/docs/082707.htm
New Age gaze fastens on Miami Circle
By ALFONSO CHARDY
Herald Staff Writer
The Miami Circle, already the focus of wide attention, is now attracting New Age followers and unconventional researchers -- some of whom view it as the remnant of a vanished worldwide stone civilization stretching from Egypt to Machu Picchu to Stonehenge.
Two of these unorthodox researchers, Richard Hoagland and Robert Ghost Wolf, are already in Miami talking about the circle through Coast to Coast AM With Art Bell -- a late night radio program that originates in Pahrump, Nev. with a nationwide audience of New Age, UFO, alien abduction and ``Atlantis rising'' enthusiasts.
In fact, today's Art Bell show -- carried locally from 1 to 6 a.m. on WINZ (940 AM) -- was to be dedicated to the circle with Hoagland and Ghost Wolf broadcasting live from Miami.
The circle is also featured on the Art Bell website -- www.artbell.com -- and soon will go up on the Hoagland website -- www.enterprisemission.com -- and other sites devoted to New Age subjects ranging from astrology to perceived extraterrestial connections to terrestrial megaliths.
Web site and radio reports have generated wide interest among New Age enthusiasts -- most from California -- who have sent faxes to Miami Mayor Joe Carollo asking him to save the circle, a mayoral aide said Wednesday.
New Age interest in the circle is the latest twist to the unexpectedly magnetic tale surrounding the mysterious 38-foot-wide circle discovered late last year at the mouth of the Miami River on a downtown parcel reserved for a $100-million residential and commercial complex.
Carollo on Tuesday announced plans to dig up the circle and move it, possibly to the Coconut Grove Convention Center, so archaeologists can continue studying it and developer Michael Baumann can proceed with construction.
City historians
Carollo announced Wednesday that he plans to appoint today or Friday a ``city historian'' to advise him on how to preserve and study and where to permanently display the circle once it's extracted from the ground.
Carollo's plan has not mollified activists who want to preserve the circle at the site and who on Tuesday staged a candlelight vigil protesting construction plans. A similar protest is being planned for next Tuesday.
Meanwhile, County Manager Merrett Stierheim has created a task force of experts to work on alternate options including paying off the developer to preempt construction.
Robert Carr, director of Miami-Dade County's Historic Preservation Division, said task force members are scheduled to meet Friday to begin in-depth discussions on the circle and the site.
After the city last week issued a permit to begin laying the foundation for the project, Baumann told archaeologists to leave the site by Monday. But on Sunday, a Dade Heritage Trust attorney filed an emergency legal injunction against construction.
More time won
Though a judge rejected the injunction, lawyers managed to win more time for archaeologists -- at least until Feb. 26.
Beyond mainstream concern about the circle, people who adhere to philosophies that challenge standard theories of human history are now converging on Miami -- drawn by the circle. Traditional archaeologists, however, do not put much stock on New Age theories.
Carr, the county archaeologist in charge of studies at the site, says the circle is probably 500 to 800 years old -- not as old as the pyramids of Egypt or Mexico.
Carr said he believes the circle is of Tequesta Indian origin -- the site itself is possibly a former Tequesta settlement -- and that it may have been inhabited continuously for 2,000 years.
John Ricisak, the dig's field director, said local archaeologists believe the circle to be 500 to 800 years old because of a specific type of pottery found nearby. But Ricisak acknowledged that the circle itself has yet to be dated scientifically.
People like Hoagland and Ghost Wolf may be the vanguard of a parade of New Age movement leaders who may travel to Miami to view the circle.
Links to Egypt
Among them is author Graham Hancock, who for more than 10 years has carved a career out of writing books linking ancient ruins like the Egyptian pyramids to an extinct civilization obsessed with time.
Hancock's latest book, Heaven's Mirror (Crown Publishers, Inc., New York), says the ancient monuments were possibly built to track a phenomenon called precession. In its orbit around the sun, the earth's axis wobbles making the sunrise on the eastern horizon change position throughout the year and over centuries.
For example, right now -- as viewed from earth -- the sun rises at the start of every spring near the constellation of Pisces. But about every 72 years, the sunrise precesses backward one degree away from Pisces.
Hancock said Wednesday he wants to see if the Miami circle has precessional alignments.
Mainstream experts familiar with the Miami Circle say it may be an astronomical observatory. But they also note it could have been the foundation of a sacred temple with no connection to the stars.
Also, mainstream archaeologists do not share the notion of an ancient global stone civilization linking the Egyptians, Incas or Mayans. In addition, the standard view of ancient Egyptian history is that the pyramids were royal tombs -- not astronomical monuments.
Related Links:
RealAudio: Robert Hogan AKA Richard Hoagland on All Things Considered