Examination of a contested landscape : archaeological prospection on the eastern shore of Nova Scotia

Abstract

From 1749–1755, a migration of Acadians from Nova Scotia saw hundreds relocate to Île Saint-Jean and Île Royale. Among them, following the founding of Halifax, were the Acadians of Chezzetcook, Mirliguèche and those living at modern-day Lawrencetown. In 1753 and 1754, the French and Mi'kmaq community of Mirliguèche and an area east of Halifax called “Musquodoboit” were resettled by the British and renamed Lunenburg and Lawrencetown. These efforts at resettlement of deserted French communities would presage the reoccupation of Acadian land established after 1760. This thesis is a study of a landscape. It utilizes an interdisciplinary approach of historical research, cartographic analysis, community engagement, landscape archaeology, remote sensing and empirical archaeological investigation to explore a historiographically neglected episode in Nova Scotia history. This work approaches events surrounding the abandonment of the eastern shore and resettlement of Lawrencetown as a micro-history of successive land use.