Meet the Archaeologist Leading ISL’s Heritage Services Expansion in Alberta

ISL is expanding its Heritage Services presence in Alberta with the addition of Aidan Burford, Lead Archaeologist, based in our Edmonton office. As the team’s first member based in the province, Aidan brings nearly three decades of experience to help grow our Alberta practice and support clients with local archaeological expertise.

For Aidan, it’s a new chapter in a career built on lifelong curiosity. When he first became an archaeologist, his father wasn’t surprised.

“You’re always digging up stuff,” he told him.

Growing up in a small village in Cambridgeshire, England, Aidan spent hours exploring gardens and old Victorian bottle dumps with friends, finding objects and wondering about their stories.

A recent trip to the Netherlands for the 82nd Anniversary of Operation Market Garden.

His role includes supporting applications and approval processes, conducting Historic Resources Impact Assessments, and contributing senior expertise to the team’s work in British Columbia.

Lunch on the North Saskatchewan.

For Edmonton projects, having that experience close at hand offers a practical advantage. Aidan knows the city’s archaeology well and can respond locally when field support is needed. Working alongside ISL’s other disciplines also creates opportunities to consider heritage within the broader needs of a project.

Aidan’s career began with volunteering at Flag Fen, a Bronze Age archaeological site near his hometown. A field school gave him practical training and helped him secure his first consulting role.

Since then, his work has taken him from complex archaeological excavations in the United Kingdom to international forensic investigations and projects across Western and Northern Canada.

In British Columbia, he has managed excavation work associated with bridge and highway projects, working with sites that preserve thousands of years of human history. Since 2010, he has also built extensive experience in Alberta, including archaeological excavation and monitoring in Edmonton’s Rossdale area.

Aidan doing an archaeological excavation at Fort Edmonton (Fort Augustus/Edmonton House IV 1812-1830).

His work in BC also contributed to published research, including the co-authored chapter An Early Cordilleran Assemblage from the Nechako-Fraser Basin, which offers readers a closer look at the region’s archaeological past.

These projects have reinforced an enduring interest in how places hold many layers of history, and how archaeological work can help people better understand them.

Working with Indigenous communities has been a significant part of Aidan’s career.

His experience includes collaborating with First Nations on excavation projects in British Columbia and supporting Indigenous monitoring programs in Edmonton. Along the way, he has shared field techniques with community participants and helped introduce young people to archaeology through a summer camp.

For Aidan, these experiences have been rewarding opportunities to build relationships and learn through working together. Continuing to strengthen connections with Indigenous communities is one of his goals as he settles into his role at ISL.

He also finds joy in mentoring younger colleagues, helping them build their skills and confidence in the field.

Outside work, Aidan’s interest in history and the outdoors continues. He runs and cycles in Edmonton’s river valley, explores historic neighbourhoods with his wife, and enjoys fishing, gardening, and reading history.

He also volunteers with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, cleaning graves and reporting on the condition of headstones.

Aidan working on a Commonwealth War Grave Commission assignment.

Whether caring for a historic marker or investigating the traces of an earlier community, his curiosity remains grounded in people and places.

With Aidan joining our Edmonton office, ISL’s Heritage Services team is building on that same connection, bringing additional experience and local knowledge to projects across Alberta.