MIAMI (Reuters) - Scientific tests on charcoal found in the mysterious Miami Circle, a dusty Indian relic at the heart of a fierce political battle, suggest the site
was occupied by humans at least 2,000 years ago, archeologists said Tuesday.

The tests were the first done on artifacts found at the site and the first scientific indicator of the age of the nondescript 38-foot circle. It was found last summer on
a downtown plot of land where a developer wants to erect a $100 million condominium.

A series of man-made basins and holes hacked into the limestone bedrock on one of Miami's priciest parcels of real estate at the mouth of the Miami River, the
Miami Circle has become the focus of a war between city and county governments, and developers and preservationists.

Native-American groups have adopted the circle as an illustration of America's ill treatment of sacred Indian sites. The circle is believed to be the foundation of a
ceremonial lodge constructed by indigenous Tequesta Indians before they vanished in the decades after European occupation of Florida.

The Miami-Dade County Commission on Feb. 18 voted to attempt to buy the 2.3-acre (0.92-hectare) parcel of land and obtained a court order preventing
construction at the site. The court order came over bitter opposition from the city of Miami, which stands to lose millions of dollars in tax revenue if the
condominium is not built.

Many aspects of the case still remain unexplained and controversial, but a considerable body of data and evidence has been collected by many capable
investigators, which suggests that the event was extraordinarily dramatic and bizarre. Moreover, it went virtually unreported in the press, save for a
handful of short articles printed in local Arizona newspapers. The story finally ?broke? with a major, front-page article in USA TODAY on
Wednesday, June 18, 1997, some three months after the incident had occurred.