- Doctoral Student
Matt has spent the last ten years working on CRM projects in Nova Scotia and Alberta as a permit holder and site supervisor. This work has included surveys at the Paleoindian site of Debert in Nova Scotia, large-scale excavations of historic urban settlements beneath downtown Halifax, the shovel testing of dense lithic scatters and workshops in the Boreal forest of northern Alberta, and the excavation of prehistoric campsites in the Albertan parkland. Matt is also part of international research projects including the Proyecto Arqueologico Río Parita (PARP) in Panama and the Basentello Valley Archaeological Research Project (BVARP) in southern Italy.
His methodological interests involve the use of digital site recording and mapping with total stations and photogrammetry. He is also interested in survey methodologies involving shovel testing and site visibility studies including field-walking and landscape analyses. Regarding theory, Matt is interested in general landscape theory and the involvement of regional archaeologists in the development of internationally-derived archaeological theories. His approach currently draws from historical ecology, resilience theory, and landscape archaeology, with interest in collaborative efforts to combine proxy data from history, archaeology, and palaeoenvironmental studies into more comprehensive and explanatory models of social change.
His current research is focused on identifying causal factors of archaeological landscape change in southern Italy following the transition from the late Roman to early medieval periods. The working title of this research is: An archaeology of resistance and resilience in rural landscapes of southern Italy, AD 400 to 800.