  This paper studies abelian categories that can be decomposed into smaller
abelian categories via iterated recollements - such a decomposition we call a
stratification. Examples include the categories of (equivariant) perverse
sheaves and epsilon-stratified categories (in particular highest weight
categories) in the sense of Brundan-Stroppel (2018).
  We give necessary and sufficient conditions for an abelian category with a
stratification to be equivalent to a category of finite dimensional modules of
a finite dimensional algebra - this generalizes the main result of
Cipriani-Woolf (2022). Furthermore, we give necessary and sufficient conditions
for such a category to be epsilon-stratified - this generalizes the
characterisation of highest weight categories given by Krause (2017).
