As I mentioned in the last post, I will present the project results beginning with Section 5. Please refer to the post Results: Introduction for more information.
Section 5 is the one section in the Hudson’s Bay neighborhood where I had permission to excavate. I excavated three shovel test probes at a single property in Section 5, and found some historic artifacts, but mostly modern items. Modern artifacts seem to be from household and gardening activities.
Two artifacts are potentially historic. One is an orange-colored glass seed bead. Beads like this are sometimes found in archaeological deposits dating as far back as initial contact between Native Americans and Europeans. Glass beads were used as trading currency, making this bead potentially date to the time of the first Fort Vancouver. However, since I found this bead with modern artifacts close to the ground surface, and because this type of bead is still manufactured today, this bead is likely not associated with the first fort.
The other potentially historic artifact is a piece of coal, measuring about 6 cm in length. Since the first fort had a resident blacksmith, coal would probably be found associated with early-19th century deposits. But, again, use of coal in this area extends across a long span of time and cannot definitively be dated to the time of the first fort.
A contract archaeology company also excavated in Section 5 during my project, and found household and military items. Section 5 is near the border of the US Army Barracks at Fort Vancouver and Army personnel did go on excursions out this way; they even practiced bivouacking in the area. Military artifacts are likely from Army activities and household items are from residential occupation of the landscape.
Excavations in Section 5 revealed no evidence of the first Fort Vancouver.