Colonial Houses and Cultural Identity in New York State’s Mohawk River Valley

Abstract

In the mid-eighteenth century, the Mohawk River Valley was the colonial frontier in New York, and different social, political, and cultural groups were creating their identity through action and material culture, including the built environment. Two houses, built in 1749 and 1750, are compared in relation to identity and social position of their owners. The landscape was investigated using archaeogeophysics and targeted excavation to determine how the houses and their landscapes expressed cultural identity in colonial New York. The houses and landscapes reveal how specific identities were created by the owners of the houses as part of their efforts to improve their social, political, and economic standing on the frontier while also providing a defensive structure in the face of potential French raids into the region.