The Queen’s China in the Department of the Columbia: Archaeological Studies of Ceramics and Culture Contact at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site
Robert J. Cromwell, dissertation for Syracuse University
This research will utilize a consumer choice research framework to find differences between consumption patterns of European-made ceramics between household assemblages archaeologically excavated at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
Microartifact Analysis at the Village Site, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington
Danielle Gembala, dissertation for University of Washington
The distribution of microartifacts (artifacts smaller than 1/8 in.) will be compared to macroartifacts (artifacts larger than 1/8 in.) to test various hypotheses relating to structure use, activity areas in and around structures, and to investigate questions regarding the ethnicity and gender of inhabitants.
Theses
Patterns in Glass: The Interpretation of European Glass Trade Beads from Two Protohistoric Sites in the Greater Lower Columbia Region
Gretchen Kaehler, thesis for Portland State University
The issue of social status as it manifests in the archaeological record has long been a problematic one. Glass beads are often the most numerous class of historic artifacts recovered in protohistoric sites in the Pacific Northwest. Ethnohistoric accounts indicated that these beads might have functioned as prestige items and as a form of "primitive cash" among the aboriginal peoples of the Lower Columbia River in the early to mid 1800s. To what extent were glass beads indicative of status and can their spatial distribution within protohistoric sites be used to address this question? The purpose of the present study is to determine if glass beads were indeed wealth and prestige items along the Columbia River as suggested by the historic record. A distributional study of glass beads in three plankhouses in the Lower Columbia River area was used to address this question in the archaeological record. Seven hundred and four glass beads from the Cathlapotle (45CL1) site in Ridgefield, Washington and the Meier (35CO5) site near Scappose, Oregon were classified and their positions within the study sites plotted. Both visual and statistical analyses were used to determine if there were any significant differential distributions of glass beads within these sites. There were some statistically significant differences in bead distributions within and between both of the study sites. However, these differences could not be definitively correlated with social differences in the archaeological record. The differences in bead distribution within and between these sites can be linked to chronology and site formation processes. While the archaeological record does not agree with the historic record, glass beads in protohistoric sites can be used as chronological indicators as well as markers of European contact within archaeological sites.
Faunal Analysis of the 1968 and 1969 Excavations at Kanaka Village, Fort Vancouver, Vancouver, Washington
James Hébert, report for Oregon State University
Faunal samples from the 1968-69 archaeological excavcations in the Fort Vancouver Village were analyzed. The goal of the study was to organize and identify them by taxon, as well as to note whether they had been culturally modified or burned.
Diversity at Fort Vancouver National Historic Site: Processes of Diversification in Historical Interpretation, Visitor Services, and Workforce Management.Theresa Langford, thesis for Oregon State University
Graduate Papers
"'To a Very Great Extent Independent of Us': HBC Strategies for Indian Relations in the Columbia Department, 1825-1840." Dane Bevan, graduate internship paper, Portland State University
