Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 6
The Excavation and Historical Identification of Rocky Mountain House
by William C. Noble
Artifact Descriptions
The artifacts excavated from Rocky Mountain House are of interest to
the layman, historian and historical archaeologist alike, but in
differing respects and attitudes. To the interested layman the recovered
items have an aesthetic and romantic appeal in that they are "old" and
represent something beyond memory. The historian, dealing with written
documents, finds the nature of the goods interesting in terms of the
degree to which they confirm or deny accounts of fur trade logistics,
economics and trade goods inventories. The historically minded
archaeologist, on the other hand, is interested in the artifacts from
the point of view of the data they provide regarding the time period
represented and the cultural inferences obtainable. The proveninences
and the nature of the artifacts also aid in his reconstruction of the
way of life and function of specific structures in the fort.
Information may also be gained concerning the industrial changes made
in the manufacture of exported goods from Europe to the Canadian West.
As Rocky Mountain House dates from 1799 to 1834, it spans part of the
important era of the Industrial Revolution in England and other European
countries. Machine-made products do appear at the fort during the
1810-40 period, as exemplified by the different types of nails
recovered.
The artifact sample recovered from the fort includes 11,464 items of
which 10,832 or 94.4 per cent comprises glass trade beads. This
over-whelming percentage obviously skews the sample, but the remainder
of the sample appears to be truly representative with many different
types of artifacts included. The one notable exception is the paucity of
heavy tools and hardware which no doubt were of premium value and
probably salvaged for use in a later version of Rocky Mountain
House.
The artifacts are described under five major headings of general
functional use. Each item in a class of artifacts is considered in
detail according to specific function. Throughout, commentary either
explicative or interpretative accompanies the analysis. It is felt that
the detailed descriptions presented here will be of use to future
researchers analyzing materials from other western Canadian historic
forts. While the interpretations and historical identifications are of
the most general interest, I feel that the real value of this report
rests in the detailed description of the raw data.
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