16/12/2025
🔎 Project Update | Fort Orange Publication Project
Today, the first campaign of the Fort Orange Publication Project has successfully come to an end. Over the past weeks, our team has worked intensively on the careful documentation and photography of archaeological finds from the Dutch Period (1630–1654), including coins, ceramics, glassware, yellow bricks, lead seals, weights, musket balls, and personal items such as buckles, buttons, dice, and combs.
Alongside the material study, presentations were given and students participated in hands-on training sessions. Research on materials from the later Portuguese and Brazilian periods is being carried out by Prof. Claudia Oliveira, Eleonora Guerra, and Silvia Veiga (Laboratório de Arqueologia).
The project is an international collaboration, supported by the Dutch Embassy in Brazil and Dutch Culture. We are grateful to the Federal University of Pernambuco for providing workspace and staff support, and to the Municipality of Ilha de Itamaracá for arranging daily transportation for archaeologists Oscar Hefting and Hans van Westing (New Holland Foundation).
📅 The second campaign will take place from 12 January to 5 March 2026, focusing on weaponry, German stoneware, and the extraordinary assemblage of over 14,000 fragments of white Dutch clay pipes.
📘 The final publication on the excavations of Fort Orange is scheduled for late 2026.
A brief photo overview of the first campaign is included below.
