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Dr. Robert Barry Mason

@robertmason.bsky.social

1.9K followers 1.5K following 680 posts

Archaeology, museums, science, & my garden. I also write fantasy stories (in an effort to keep the fantasy out of my archaeology). Tolkien & Pratchett nerd. 🌱🏹🏺🗡️📚📖⛏️✍️🚀🪐⚒️

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · Nov 18

1/🧵 I am an archaeologist, have been since I was a teenager working for the unit in my hometown of Southampton who then gave me a job for a few years. Eventually I got a D.Phil from Oxford (1994) and jobs at the Royal Ontario Museum & University of Toronto.

Here I am excavating in Southampton in 1981, photo by a Southern Evening Echo photographer. Shorts like that were less of a statement in 1981. I think I got the hat at the Glastonbury rock festival.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23d

Perhaps they have a better education system? Interestingly I did not see a single Scottish flag there in the published images.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23d

Really, England is an immigrant concept, a thin veneer of a language over a population which is genetically mostly what has been on the island since the Bronze Age. If they were true nationalists they would be all speaking Brythonic or Gaelic.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23d

The Union Jack is a combination of the crosses of St. George, a Palestinian; St. Andrew, who was an Apostle from Galilee; and St. Patrick, who was British, but is famous for work in Ireland where he was initially a hated immigrant. They would not approve.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 24d

For all the people out there waving the Cross of St. George, you should know that St. George of Lydda was a Palestinian, and is widely revered in the Middle East by all faiths.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 27d

Getting some very nice aubergines or eggplants this year! 🌱

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 27d

It is deeply disturbing to have *anyone* deriding the concept of empathy, but when these people call themselves Christians it's sickening.

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 27d

Well those Dark Age folks had to get their swords from somewhere...

Reposted by Dr. Robert Barry Mason

Antiquity Journal @antiquity.ac.uk · 27d

NEW Britain's economy did not collapse after the #Romans left

A new, unbroken timeline of British metal production from the 5th century AD to the present day questions the idea of a post-Roman 'Dark Age'.

Strap in for an industrious #AntiquityThread 1/12 🧵

🏺 #Archaeology

Two archaeologists excavating in a trench.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

She came across as being a silly undergrad in the trailer. Not like this woman at all.

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Let's hear it for masons!

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Yes. I haven't seen "The Dig" I think partly because the trailer makes it look like a romance, and partly because it makes Stuart Pigott look so much older than his wife at the time. I looked it up, he was two years older, the actors have a 20-year difference.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Another Brough, another number...

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

So is this George V?

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Well, you have to Represent, eh?

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Archaeology Mag provide a nice update on the work at Guédelon Castle.

#MedievalSky #ExperimentalArchaeology #ArtchaeologyofStuff #Castles

archaeology.org/issues/septe...

Features - How to Build a Medieval Castle - Archaeology Magazine - September/October 2025

Why are archaeologists constructing a thirteenth-century fortress in the forests of France?

archaeology.org

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Now *that* is a very nice helmet. I suspect the reenactors will be ordering Aegadian Montefortino helmets in large numbers. The peak goes to the back, though, if you didn't know.

#archaeology #RomanSky #Roman #MilitaryArchaeology

www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

'Extraordinary' Roman helmet from war-ending battle found in the sea off Sicily

Archaeologists recovered the "Montefortino"-style helmet in an underwater excavation in the Aegadian Islands off the coast of Sicily.

www.livescience.com

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Of course, that is quite normal for mediaeval pottery.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

It sounds like the locals "discovered" the roof, tried to move it with heavy machinery, and then told the authorities. Nice bit of stonework, though.

#Archaeology

www.reuters.com/science/weal...

Wealthy ancient Roman's tomb discovered in Albania

Archaeologists in Albania have discovered a large Roman burial chamber dating from the third to fourth century AD, the first of its kind found in the Balkan country that was once part of the Roman Empire.

www.reuters.com

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Earliest evidence of indigo processing in Georgia, 34,000 years ago. Looks convincing!

#ArchaeologyofStuff #Archaeology

archaeologymag.com/2025/09/anci...

Ancient blue: 34,000-year-old traces of indigo found in Georgian cave

Archaeologists uncover 34,000-year-old indigo dye traces in Georgia, revealing early plant use beyond food and tools.

archaeologymag.com

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Same article has this: "Painting of the 1937 Latch Farm excavations, on display at the Red House Museum – Peggy on right, sister Pamela Preston (middle) and Mary Eily de Putron (left) with John Brailsford and Peter Fitzgerald Moore (Photograph © Miles Russell)"

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28d

Caption says "Peggy Piggott with E. Cecil Curwen in 1935, working on the Whitehawk Camp ceramics"

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 29d

😞

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · Sep 8

Interesting paper on microplastics. It seems they are everywhere, including in our bodies, and we still do not know the harm that they may do.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Twenty years of microplastic pollution research—what have we learned?

Twenty years after the first publication that used the term microplastic, we review current understanding, refine definitions, and consider future prospects. Microplastics arise from multiple sources,...

www.science.org

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · Sep 5

It is exhausting, and somewhat dizzying, isn't it? What really baffles me is that they miss what is actually eyebrow-raising about any of this.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · Sep 4

I love the old guy cheering them on, and the woman making sure they are getting it straight.