I really dig my research!

My name is Emily Draicchio and I am a Master of Arts graduate student studying Canadian History at the University of New Brunswick. You may be wondering why a history student is digging at an archaeological site instead of buried under piles of dusty archival documents… Well, the answer to this question can be found in a short description of my current master’s research on Canadian slavery. The study of Canadian slavery is a growing field that has recently been analysed by historians, however archaeologists have largely failed to consider their role in this field.  Given this lack of engaged archaeological study, my research is focused on locating, documenting, and analysing slave quarters in New Brunswick through the examination of archival and archaeological material. To further advance my archaeology skills I was given the opportunity by Dr. Gabriel Hrynick to be a teaching assistant at the Northeastern Archaeological Survey, Downeast Archaeological Field School. We completed excavations of eroding coastal shell heaps in Maine that provide archaeological evidence of Indigenous occupation from ca. 3000–550 BP. I assisted students with excavations and lab work all the while learning new archaeological methods myself that are useful to my research.