The best city archaeologist Carl Halbirt can figure is a horselike skeleton found at Anastasia Island may have been a beast of burden that hauled coquina used to build the historic Castillo de San Marcos.
It would be an exciting find even in a city where a shovel turn most anywhere will unearth bits and pieces of history.
The burial, thought to date to the 17th century, carries a mystery Halbirt is itching to solve.
It appears someone bashed the animal over the head, then sliced each of its legs off cleanly before resting the torso at the bottom of a 4-foot-deep hole, tossing the legs in after it.
"Why they did that, I have no idea," Halbirt said.
Poor bugger.