Who is Emma Culligan? Unveiling her role in Oak Island’s secrets
Who is Emma Culligan, the metallurgist on The Curse of Oak Island? How did she join the treasure-hunt reality show, and why has she become a fan favourite?
Image: Emma Culligan (R) has become a valuable member of the team over the past few season | The Curse of Oak Island
Is there a massive treasure hoard buried on Oak Island, off the coast of Canada’s Nova Scotia province? That’s what the cast of long-running Sky HISTORY reality series The Curse of Oak Island have been diligently trying to find out.
Several of the on-screen treasure hunters, including brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, have been mainstays of the show since its debut back in 2014. Otherwise, we’ve seen a conveyor belt of archaeological experts stepping in to help the Laginas unearth fascinating artefacts from the island’s soil.
The Curse of Oak Island has been a very male-heavy affair, but the team got a new female member with the 10th season in 2022. Metallurgist Emma Culligan has remained a key part of the show to this day, and established herself as a firm fan favourite.
Emma Culligan’s life
Little is known about Emma’s life before joining The Curse of Oak Island. However, when introducing herself on the show, she explained: 'I studied engineering as well as archaeology, a niche I wanted to create for myself.'
Emma studied these disciplines at Memorial University in Newfoundland, as she revealed as a guest on The Curse of Oak Island & Beyond Podcast.
In a May 2023 episode of the podcast, she recalled one of her professors at the university urging her to take up metallurgy as well. This led Emma to spend years analysing iron with a scanning electron microscope.
In the same interview, it was revealed that she grew up in Japan and her first language was Japanese. She did not learn English until the age of 15.
Emma’s role in The Curse of Oak Island
Before joining The Curse of Oak Island, Emma knew someone already involved with the show. Knowing of Emma’s interests in archaeology and engineering, this friend was eager to try getting Emma a personal assistant position on the show.
In the end, Laird Niven — one of the show’s archaeologists — decided that she should operate the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) system on the island instead.
Today, fans of The Curse of Oak Island are familiar with Emma Culligan using techniques like XRF and XRD (X-ray diffraction) to analyse metals. The archaeologists regularly return from the field with newly discovered artefacts for her to examine.
Emma’s discoveries in The Curse of Oak Island
Did you know that most of the 32 lots on Oak Island belong to Rick and Marty Lagina? The Lagina brothers’ impressive net worth has enabled them to snap up a large share of this privately owned island.
With so much to explore, it’s no wonder that the Laginas have uncovered many intriguing treasures on Oak Island. With her specialist expertise, Emma Culligan has been able to decipher the approximate ages and likely purposes of many items brought to the laboratory.
Could pirates have visited Oak Island?
Emma’s down-to-earth, self-effacing nature has endeared her to viewers. Even her first appearance on the show was relatively low-key. During a (largely) in-person meeting of the crew, she was on a video chat screen in the background.
That was in the 10th season’s first episode, where she nonetheless went on to make a big impact. In the episode, titled 'On Their Marks', she discerned from CT (computed tomography) scanning a piece of metal that it was probably a ‘bunk hook’.
As bunk hooks were historically used with cargo ships, it sparked speculation that ships carrying treasure could have been active near the island.
A possible connection to Sir William Phips
In the 12th season’s first episode, 'The New Digs', metal detectorist Gary Drayton came across a quartered coin fragment on lot 4. With the help of an XRF map scanner, Emma confirmed that the piece was of a silver English shilling from the 1690s.
This revelation led historian Doug Crowell to recall the allegation that 17th-century seafarer Sir William Phips buried treasure on Oak Island. It has been theorised that allies of Phips made unsuccessful attempts to retrieve the valuables later in the century. Could the coin have been left by these treasure hunters?
This isn’t the first time a William III coin has been found on Oak Island, either. In season four, episode six, Marty’s son Alex Lagina and Drayton made a similar discovery on lot 6. This area used to be owned by former slave Samuel Ball.
Other historical figures associated with the Oak Island mystery include Sir Francis Drake and FDR. You can learn a lot more about such big names of the past by subscribing to the Sky HISTORY Newsletter.
