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http://www.katu.com/news/local/98891779.html

VANCOUVER, Wash. - New artifacts that archaeologists have unearthed at Fort Vancouver could shed new light about people who lived in the fort's Village and almost 200 years ago.

The Village is just west of Fort Vancouver itself and the people who lived there during the 1830s and 1840s either worked for the Hudson's Bay Company or were visiting traders. They came from diverse backgrounds like Native Americans, Hawaiians, Europeans and Americans.

They were primarily illiterate and, without a written record, archaeologists haven't been able to find out how they lived. That is changing after archaeology students this summer found a number of artifacts like glass trading beads, ceramics and bottle glass.

The artifacts were found in the footprint of a former home that once stood in the Village, and archaeologists say it will help them paint a picture of the "colonial capital" of the then untamed Pacific Northwest.

Archaeologist and Portland State University professor Doug Wilson said they don't have to look deep beneath the surface to find where the home used to stand.

Just inches into the soil he identified a road from the 1930s and just a few inches below that he pointed out where the house floor use to be.

It was there they found buttons, a belt buckle, a musket ball and a piece of a ceramic plate.

"Maybe this plate broke and this piece (of ceramic plate) just got incorporated into the floor because of people walking," said Dana Holschuh, a Portland State graduate student.

The archaeologists aren't only interested in what happened inside the homes but also what happened on the outside. They believe the people who lived there would form what's called "trash halos" all the way around the perimeter of the home by throwing trash out the doors and windows.

"That trash can be very informative on what people in these houses were actually doing," said Wilson.

Inside the nearby fort, a research library houses a lot of information about the fort itself but very little of what the village would have looked like. That's why Wilson and the students are so excited about their discoveries that could answer questions about a period frozen in time.

"Who the last person who touched this (musket ball), now I'm part of it. We're all part of it," said Holschuh.

The public can see what the students are finding and hear all about their discoveries now through Saturday at Fort Vancouver.