Mike Seager Thomas is a British archaeologist specialising in the study of

landscape archaeology Landscape archaeology, previously known as total archaeology is a sub-discipline of archaeology and archaeological theory. It studies the ways in which people in the past constructed and used the environment around them. It is also known as archae ...

, conflict heritage,

Rapa Nui Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

, and stone in

prehistoric archaeology Prehistoric archaeology is a subfield of archaeology, which deals specifically with artefacts, civilisations and other materials from societies that existed before any form of writing system or historical record. Often the field focuses on ages ...

. Till 2025 he was an honorary Research Fellow of the

UCL Institute of Archaeology UCL's Institute of Archaeology is an academic department of the Social & Historical Sciences Faculty of University College London (UCL) which it joined in 1986 having previously been a school of the University of London. It is currently one of ...

Career

Mike Seager Thomas studied archaeology at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. He has been a full time professional archaeologist since 1996, working in the commercial sector as an excavator/excavation supervisor and as a freelance prehistoric pottery and stone specialist. Mike Seager Thomas is also a long-term participant in UCL Institute of Archaeology research projects, including the well-known Leskernick Project, the Tavoliere-Gargano Prehistory Project, and—most recently—the Rapa Nui (

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

) Landscapes of Construction Project, and he has reported on prehistoric pottery from several IOA Institute of Archaeology training excavations. Out of his involvement in the Leskernick Project, he became the principal subject of project sociologist Mike Willmore's very funny "The Book and the Trowel," published in the Leskernick project book ''Stone Worlds,'' and the perceived victim of a "top-down interpersonal project hierarchy," which challenged the egalitarian pretensions of what is otherwise considered a theoretically seminal archaeological project. He has ongoing academic interests in stone in prehistoric archaeology, conflict heritage and landscape archaeology, recording strategies for Rapa Nui archaeology, Polynesian architecture, and the use of period photographs in archaeological and historical research. Books by Mike Seager Thomas include ''Excavating Stone Worlds'' (2007), co-written with Sue Hamilton and Phillip Thomas, the ''Afrikamütze Database'', Volumes 1–3 (2019), ''Neolithic Spaces, Volume 2: The Bradford Archive'' and ''The WW2 Foggia Airfield Complex in the Bradford Archive of Aerial Photographs'' (both 2020), and ''Wally's War: The WW2 North African Campaign Diaries of Walter von Schramm of the NZ Graves Registration & Enquiries Unit'' (2024).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seager Thomas, Mike Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British archaeologists 21st-century British archaeologists People associated with the UCL Institute of Archaeology Alumni of the UCL Institute of Archaeology Geoarchaeologists

Researchers in Rapa Nui archaeology Research is creative and systematic work undertaken to increase the stock of knowledge. It involves the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence to increase understanding of a topic, characterized by a particular attentiveness to c ...

People from Surbiton