Rewilding Project.
Lou is an established professional archaeologist with an academic background in Environmental Archaeology (pollen analysis) and, latterly, palaeolimnology. Lou ran Historic Environment Records in both South Yorkshire (2003-2010) and North Yorkshire (2010-2015), before a working for the Archaeology Data Service as Collections Development Manager (2015-2018). In 2023, she completed her PhD in Physical Geography ‘Iron Age Palaeoenvironments of Northwest Scotland’ which involved a multi-proxy analysis (pollen, carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis and X-ray florescence) of loch sediment records.
Research Interests: Late glacial and Holocene environment and landscape change in Britain, with a focus on human/environment/landscape interactions from prehistory until the early medieval period. Pollen, bulk sediment and isotope geochemistry.
Geographic Areas: Britain and NW Europe
Selected Publications
Du, M., Jones, V.J., van Hardenbroek, M., Matthews, L. & Ji, K. (2023) ‘How much organic carbon have UK lakes stored in the Holocene? A preliminary estimate’, Holocene (Sevenoaks), 33(6), pp. 746–755.
Matthews, L. (2022) The Environmental History of the Broch, in Cavers G., Barber J., Heald A., Johnstone N., McLaren D., and Robertson, J (eds). Clachtoll Broch: An Iron Age Settlement in Assynt, Northwest Scotland. Oxford: Oxbow Books