Excavating the Sutlers’ House

David Starbuck and his colleagues have been excavating British military sites in Fort Edward and Lake George, New York, for two decades. This region housed the largest British forts and encampments of the French and Indian War (1754-1763), with as many as 16,000 soldiers and officers garrisoned there. In 1996, on the east bank of the Hudson River, Starbuck’s team unearthed the remarkable remains of a sutlers’ (or merchants’) house which had supplied goods to the British armies throughout the late 1750s. Because no eighteenth-century sutling house had ever before been professionally excavated, this site offered an amazing opportunity for research and discovery.

This beautifully illustrated volume focuses on the rich and varied material culture brought to this region by the British armies and their suppliers, including representative artifacts found at Rogers Island, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, and the Lake George Battlefield Park.

Organized around material themes such as weaponry and ammunition, food and foodways, and tools and equipment, Excavating the Sutlers’ House provides a fascinating overview of artifacts from the French and Indian War to the American Revolution.