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Emma Boast
Archaeological Finds and Archives Technician

Biography

Emma is the Finds and Archive Technician for the Department of Archaeology. She provides teaching support relating to archaeological finds, care and curation, as well as offering specialist finds and archiving advice within the Department. She teaches on the undergraduate ‘Discovering Archaeology’ and ‘Post-Excavation’ modules. She also helps to deliver the postgraduate ‘Curated Placement’ as part of the MA in Field Archaeology, as well as the Finds and Archives Internships. She helps to facilitate the smooth running of K/G62 as an active Finds and Post-excavation Lab. As well as helping to facilitate students, staff and researchers with their requests.

Career

Emma has a Ba in Archaeology and Landscape History from Anglia Ruskin University Cambridge. Her dissertation was titled, ‘The Role of the Viking Shield in Society’. Which included an assessment of all current HER data for England relating to the surviving archaeological elements of this artefact, including its components and fittings.

Following this, she undertook a MA in Medieval Archaeology at the University of York. Her dissertation was titled, ‘The Viking Shield in the British Isles: changes in use from the 8th-11th Century in England and the Isle of Man’. She assessed an assortment of assemblages relating to the deposition of Viking Age shield components and remains, mostly focusing on burial contexts, as well as singular find depositions. This material was then compared to the material culture found for this period in Scandinavia, to help highlight similar forms and trends within the material culture for this artefact type.

Before taking her current position Emma had spent many years as an independent Viking Age consultant and heritage crafter, recreating Viking Age textiles out of Nalbinding, an early fibre craft that predates knitting. Emma is now the UK’s leading Nalbinding Master Craftsman in this ancient craft and has created educational resources to teach this craft from an archaeological perspective. In 2018 Emma successfully managed to list Nalbinding as an Endangered Heritage Craft in the UK, with the Heritage Craft Association, further ensuring not only its further dissemination as a practical heritage skill, but also as a means to engage with further research opportunities from a Finds Specialist perspective.

Previous work in archaeology includes working for the commercial archaeological branch of York Archaeological Trust, as a Project Archaeologist for 5 years, helping to deliver archaeological watching briefs, evaluations and excavations in the historic city of York and further afield. Opportunities within this role enabled learning across multiple departments, with time spent assisting with finds processing, curation and care of objects; as well as taking on added responsibilities for post-excavation tasks, such as reporting writing, illustration, finds reporting, paper archiving and museum submission preparation.

Prior to this Emma spent 5 years in Heritage Education with the Jorvik Viking Centre, developing and delivering educational workshops and exhibits for KS2/KS3, as well as specialist tour groups and educational events.