The Curse of Oak Island: Archaeologist Dr. Aaron Taylor has discussed who he thinks built the mysterious stone roadway

Oak Island regular archaeologist Dr. Aaron Taylor has opened up about his time spent working on the enigmatic Nova Scotian island, and he’s given us his opinion on who may have built the strange cobblestone pathway.

He has also spoken about the strong levels of camaraderie between the cast and crew and about the high levels of professionalism and scientific expertise displayed by everybody working to solve the centuries-old mystery.

Taylor forms part of the so-called army of archaeologists who have descended on Oak Island in the last two seasons, a section of the workforce that, at first, Rick and Marty Lagina were a bit disparaging and weary towards but have since lauded as the discoveries began piling up.

Aaron spent most of Season 8 working with trusty sidekick Miriam Amirault on uncovering the stone path, or roadway, that was first found in the swamp. The theory is that this road was used to transport cargo (hopefully treasure) from a wharf in the swamp to somewhere else, fingers crossed, possibly the Money Pit itself.

And last month Taylor sat down with Dustin and Deidra White from the Could It Be Oak Island Podcast and discussed at length his important work on the island.

Responding to a listener’s question, the guys asked Aaron who he thinks built the road and asked him to explain his thinking.

He said that there are two possibilities, the French or the British. The wooden stakes found on the road were dated to between 1680 and 1720, which was a time when both the French and the British were very active in that part of the world.

Aaron Taylor suspects the British built the Oak Island stone roadway

And Aaron says that if he was a betting man, he’d opt for the British. Sadly, he wasn’t any more specific than that.

But he did say why he thought it was the British. His reasoning was the discovery of British-style ceramics and a piece of gunflint that appears to originate from old Blighty. He said the gunflint was greyish in color, whereas the French version tended to have a yellow hue.

Unfortunately, the level-headed and methodical archaeologist refused to give an opinion as to exactly why the stone roadway was built in the first place. It seems as though he wishes to wait for more data to come in before coming to a concrete conclusion.

Aaron did say that the construction of the road had been a major undertaking that would have required a massive workforce and a lot of time. He said it was definitely not built by fishermen or farmers.

And Aaron also deepened the mystery by pointing out that there are better sites on the island from which to unload a ship. So, why was the wharf and roadway built in the swamp?

Those who watched the show might remember that Aaron had expressed surprise that they weren’t finding more artifacts on the roadway. He reiterated this surprise on the podcast, stating how you would expect to find numerous items, such as drinking vessels and eating containers, on a normal archaeological site.

But here, there was almost nothing. As though the builders and users of the road had wished to hide that they had ever been on the island.

Oak Island stone roadway is a ‘highlight’ of Aaron Taylor’s career

Of his time on the island, Taylor echoed his colleague geoscientist, Dr. Ian Spooner, when he said that Oak Island was a lot of hard work, but ultimately, very rewarding. He said the stone roadway is “one of the highlights of my career.”

He also spoke about having a lot of respect for all his co-workers on Oak Island and he praised the professionalism of everyone from Rick and Marty Lagina to the camera crew..

Fingers crossed Aaron and Miriam will be back on our screens in the fall to continue their work on the stone roadway.

The Curse of Oak Island is currently on hiatus, but is expected to return with Season 9 in the fall 2021.