Michael Stratigos
Postdoctoral Research Associate,
Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity
History of Power, People and Nature
Biography
I am an archaeologist interested in wetland landscapes and settlement. I undertook PhD research at the University of Aberdeen (2014–17) and for the past three years I have been a postdoctoral research assistant at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (2017–20) where I remain an Honorary Research Fellow. I am excited to join the LCAB in order to situate my archaeological research of past human interaction with wetland landscapes in wider discourses of present and future threats to biodiversity and sustainability.
Research
My research is interested in past human relationships to wetland environments. In addition to studying the uniquely preserved traces of human settlement in wetlands, I am particularly interested in characterising and quantifying land-use changes that have drained vast areas of wetland environments and how this has impacted the archaeological record of these areas. I do this primarily through GIS analysis of old maps and other geotechnical data, but also through traditional archaeological survey and excavation. As part of the LCAB, I am now turning my attention to using the data on past wetland drainage (and the wetland cultural heritage of these environments) to contextualise and improve efforts to understand and conserve wetland habitat and biodiversity.
Publication highlights
Stratigos, M.J. (2022). What Wetland are We Protecting and Restoring? Quantifying the Human Creation of Protected Areas in Scotland. Journal of Wetland Archaeology.
Jones, S.E., Martinez-Cortizas, A, Mighall, T.M., Stratigos, M.J., & Noble, G. (2022). Lake and crannog: A 2500-year palaeoenvironmental record of continuity and change in NE Scotland. Quaternary Science Reviews 285(107532).
Stratigos, M.J. (2021). A model of coastal wetland palaeogeography and archaeological narratives: Loch Spynie, Northern Scotland. Journal of Wetland Archaeology 20(1–2), pp. 43–58.
Stratigos, M. J. (2018). Loch Drainage and Improvement in Scotland Landscape History 39(2), pp. 71–89.
Stratigos, M. J. and Noble, G. (2017). A new chronology for crannogs in north-east Scotland Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 147: 147–73.
Stratigos, M. J. (2016). The Lost Lochs of Scotland: Tracking land-use change and its effects on the archaeological record. Journal of Wetland Archaeology, 16, pp. 33–51.