Dr. Robert Barry Mason
@robertmason.bsky.social
Archaeology, museums, science, & my garden. I also write fantasy stories (in an effort to keep the fantasy out of my archaeology). Tolkien & Pratchett nerd. 🌱🏹🏺🗡️📚📖⛏️✍️🚀🪐⚒️
Both of my daughters play Sims, so I thought I would give it a go. I made a Sims version of the monastery in Syria where I did fieldwork for some years, Deir Mar Musa.
January 20, 2026 at 6:53 PM
Both of my daughters play Sims, so I thought I would give it a go. I made a Sims version of the monastery in Syria where I did fieldwork for some years, Deir Mar Musa.
Trying to pin down this North Elmham pottery at the ROM. This group is mostly Thetford Ware, 3 Ipswich Wares, & 3 St. Neot's ware. The latter has shell (you can see it in this photo). Ipswich ware is supposedly grittier than Thetford Ware. Time to break out the microscope.
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
December 23, 2025 at 1:54 AM
Trying to pin down this North Elmham pottery at the ROM. This group is mostly Thetford Ware, 3 Ipswich Wares, & 3 St. Neot's ware. The latter has shell (you can see it in this photo). Ipswich ware is supposedly grittier than Thetford Ware. Time to break out the microscope.
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
It snowed. Yay.
December 11, 2025 at 2:48 PM
It snowed. Yay.
Tricky working out the numbers on the North Elmham pottery sometimes. I think this is NEP 67 102. I assume 102 is what they call a feature in the publication, what we called a context number in my day (70's-80's). Unfortunately this number is not in the publication!
🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology
🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology
December 9, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Tricky working out the numbers on the North Elmham pottery sometimes. I think this is NEP 67 102. I assume 102 is what they call a feature in the publication, what we called a context number in my day (70's-80's). Unfortunately this number is not in the publication!
🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology
🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology
Working on the North Elmham medieval pottery from England at the ROM and found this guy. Seems a merry sort. 🏺
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
December 9, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Working on the North Elmham medieval pottery from England at the ROM and found this guy. Seems a merry sort. 🏺
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
#MedievalSky #Archaeology
This really is not natural. The trees know when the winter is coming, they drop their leaves before the first snows. Usually there is enough time to clear the leaves before the snows come. Things are messed up.
November 14, 2025 at 2:14 AM
This really is not natural. The trees know when the winter is coming, they drop their leaves before the first snows. Usually there is enough time to clear the leaves before the snows come. Things are messed up.
MEN! Have you thought about the Roman Empire today? 🏺
My pic of 2005.
My pic of 2005.
November 11, 2025 at 9:32 PM
MEN! Have you thought about the Roman Empire today? 🏺
My pic of 2005.
My pic of 2005.
So many moustaches...I'm surprised that there aren't more beards. Apart from the influence of the King, surely some of these men were ex-Navy? But then I googled for sailors in 1914 and got no beards again!
October 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
So many moustaches...I'm surprised that there aren't more beards. Apart from the influence of the King, surely some of these men were ex-Navy? But then I googled for sailors in 1914 and got no beards again!
I have just written a science-fiction story in which the main character has the ability to create circular kilometer-wide "cities". Today I discovered Nördlingen. However, this German city was built in a meteor crater, not by alien technology! 📚🪐 #BookSky
medium.com/the-kraken-l...
medium.com/the-kraken-l...
October 27, 2025 at 12:21 AM
I have just written a science-fiction story in which the main character has the ability to create circular kilometer-wide "cities". Today I discovered Nördlingen. However, this German city was built in a meteor crater, not by alien technology! 📚🪐 #BookSky
medium.com/the-kraken-l...
medium.com/the-kraken-l...
I thought I had better get a pic of these fuchsias before the frost hits tonight! 🌱 #FlowerReport
October 25, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I thought I had better get a pic of these fuchsias before the frost hits tonight! 🌱 #FlowerReport
Looking up the precise location of the site producing the Anglo-Saxon pottery I have been asked to look at in the ROM. North Elmham was apparently the seat of a bishopric until 1071, and the excavations were to the southwest of the now ruined cathedral. 🏺 #MedievalSky
October 23, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Looking up the precise location of the site producing the Anglo-Saxon pottery I have been asked to look at in the ROM. North Elmham was apparently the seat of a bishopric until 1071, and the excavations were to the southwest of the now ruined cathedral. 🏺 #MedievalSky
If you saw this chap, and you knew he had a story, would you be interested in knowing what that story was?
October 19, 2025 at 8:15 PM
If you saw this chap, and you knew he had a story, would you be interested in knowing what that story was?
44 years after I last excavated in Anglo-Saxon Southampton (fondly known as "Hamwee,"or actually Hamwih, to its excavators), I have been asked to catalogue some English early mediaeval pottery. A reward for a career studying the vibrantly colourful pottery of the medieval Middle East! #MedievalSky
October 15, 2025 at 6:41 PM
44 years after I last excavated in Anglo-Saxon Southampton (fondly known as "Hamwee,"or actually Hamwih, to its excavators), I have been asked to catalogue some English early mediaeval pottery. A reward for a career studying the vibrantly colourful pottery of the medieval Middle East! #MedievalSky
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.
September 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM
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.
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.
September 14, 2025 at 6:51 PM
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.
Getting some very nice aubergines or eggplants this year! 🌱
September 11, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Getting some very nice aubergines or eggplants this year! 🌱
Well those Dark Age folks had to get their swords from somewhere...
September 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Well those Dark Age folks had to get their swords from somewhere...
She came across as being a silly undergrad in the trailer. Not like this woman at all.
September 10, 2025 at 8:36 PM
She came across as being a silly undergrad in the trailer. Not like this woman at all.
Another Brough, another number...
September 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Another Brough, another number...
So is this George V?
September 10, 2025 at 3:35 PM
So is this George V?
Of course, that is quite normal for mediaeval pottery.
September 10, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Of course, that is quite normal for mediaeval pottery.
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)"
September 10, 2025 at 2:31 PM
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)"
Caption says "Peggy Piggott with E. Cecil Curwen in 1935, working on the Whitehawk Camp ceramics"
September 10, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Caption says "Peggy Piggott with E. Cecil Curwen in 1935, working on the Whitehawk Camp ceramics"
I think what astonishes me about the Chalcolithic site at Cortijo Lobato, Spain, is not the Roman guy they found buried in it (which made it newsworthy) but that they were building (seemingly) multivallate castles in Spain before 2450 B.C.E.
#Castles 🏺
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
#Castles 🏺
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
September 4, 2025 at 1:48 PM
I think what astonishes me about the Chalcolithic site at Cortijo Lobato, Spain, is not the Roman guy they found buried in it (which made it newsworthy) but that they were building (seemingly) multivallate castles in Spain before 2450 B.C.E.
#Castles 🏺
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
#Castles 🏺
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...
July 21, 2025 at 12:22 AM