The Curse of Oak Island Season 11 featured the arrival of a new expert archaeologist, Jamie Kouba, who took the island by storm with her enthusiastic and bubbly personality.
Oak Island fans are fully aware that the role of archaeologists in the treasure hunt has been rapidly expanding in recent series. We’ve seen a few come and go over the last couple of years, including the popular duo Aaron Taylor and Miriam Amirault.
Aaron came across as calm, quiet, professional, and dare I say, a bit dull at times (Love you, Aaron!). However, not Jamie; her expert analysis is far more dramatic and exciting.
Jamie and Jack Begley shared amazing on-screen chemistry as they continuously ramped up the excitement. Jamie appeared in 16 episodes of Season 11 and two Drilling Down episodes.
Her most important find to date was likely a hand-forged decorative tassel that was 90 percent silver.
The high silver content officially classed it as a treasure, and lead archaeologist Laird Niven claimed that he had never found anything like it in 40 years.
Jamie Kouba announced The Curse of Oak Island appearance with pictures
Jamie first announced she would appear on The Curse of Oak Island with a personal social media post. She posted behind-the-scenes pics of her posing with cast and crew members.
She wrote, “Okay folks, the cat is out of the bag tonight. This is what I was doing in Nova Scotia for the last six months. I was so very blessed to work with some of the most amazing people in the whole world!”
Jamie was raised in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, and received a B.A. in English and another in Cultural Anthropology from Ashford University. She then achieved a master’s degree in anthropology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She also specialized in zooarchaeology.
The archaeologist is immensely proud of her IUP roots and has been seen sporting an IUP sweatshirt while digging at the rectangular structure on Lot 5.
Jamie spoke highly of her university professors, telling CBS News, “I wanted so bad for IUP to be represented on the show. Because honestly, I wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for my amazing professors and the support that I got at IUP.”
Oak Island archaeologist was inspired by Indiana Jones
Jamie was inspired to become an archaeologist by watching the Indiana Jones movies. She claimed that after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, she “was pretty much hooked.”
Jamie’s Facebook cover photo is a quote generally attributed to groundbreaking archaeologist Carmel Schrire: “I became an archaeologist because I wanted to drive around in a big Landrover, smoking, cursing, and finding treasure.”
According to her LinkedIn page, Jamie has excavated archaeological sites for almost 30 years. She also has a range of experience creating archaeological surveys and 3-D models using cameras, drones, and other fancy devices. Oak Island fans have seen her expertly perform a magnetometer survey on Lot 5.
Hopefully, Jamie will be back for Season 12 in November and will play a key role in finding the treasure. In the interview with CBS, she said, “My biggest hope is that they find this incredible treasure that they’ve been looking for. Whether it is esoteric or actual gold or literature, or whatever it is, I hope that they find it.”
The Curse of Oak Island Season 12 is expected to return in November 2024 on History.