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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

How tall are they? I need passengers for my railway.

Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Not a lot of Fall flowers in the garden at the moment! Just some strays photographed in the intense early morning light. The kale is going well, though! 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

38% of Americans approve of Donald Trump?

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Cover of "Mission to the Stars" (1953) A novel by Philip Kent (Kenneth Bulmer). Never read the book, but I do wish they still had covers like that! 📚

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

In the next part of the process to make the Serce Liman pottery thin-sections the "excess" sample in its resin casing is cut off from the slide using a high precision saw (more in ALT). #ArchaeologyofStuff #CeramicPetrography 🏺⛏️ #Ceramics #CeramicPetrology #Archaeology #Archaeometry

The "excess" pottery in its resin casing is cut off from the slide using a high precision saw

The slide is then numbered with the unique number of the object being sampled. "GW" stands for "Glass Wreck", the specific wreck found at Serce Liman (there were several others!)

The slides are now ready to have the sample ground down to three microns thickness. The "surplus" pottery will then be renumbered, if the number was lost in the processing, and stored in the numbered bag it arrived in. If something goes wrong in the final stage, or if it is otherwise desirable, the block will be used to make another thin-section.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Found this and couldn't resist sharing it.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Busy week at the ROM! I took the impregnated Serce Liman samples out of the cups, cut off the excess resin, ground the sample flat, then glued glass slides to the sample! #ArchaeologyofStuff #CeramicPetrography 🏺⛏️ #Ceramics #CeramicPetrology #Archaeology #Archaeometry

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

At the ROM this week I set the pottery samples from Serce Liman in epoxy resin before making them into thin-sections. (more in ALT). #ArchaeologyofStuff #CeramicPetrography 🏺⛏️ #Ceramics #CeramicPetrology #Archaeology #Archaeometry

Pottery samples from Serce Liman in epoxy resin in anticipation of turning them into thin-sections. They are put under vacuum for a few minutes to suck the air out, and then the vacuum is released to impregnate the ceramic with the resin as much as possible, This makes it less problematic in making a thin-section out of the friable ceramic. I was nervous about mixing up the samples with their numbers, so I gave each sample it's own cup!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

For significant amounts of time my train of thought circles around a Zen fairy garden. #GardenRailway #ModelTrain #Gscaletrains #Gscale #FairyGarden #FairyGardenRailway

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Finished up recording the samples from Serce Liman this week. Next week I will start turning them into thin sections for petrographic analysis! #archaeology 🏺

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Dear Elder Scrolls Online, please make clothes like this. Also a nice basket-hilt broadsword. Thank you. @elderscrollsonline.com #ESO

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Anyone on here do photographs of pottery fabrics? Do you like whole sherd sections, or a close-up of the fabric? #archaeology 🏺

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

Sorry for not being very active on this platform lately, I've just been so busy in the garden! #FairyGarden #GardenRailway #FairyGardenRailway

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

The stalwarts of Gnomeland Security are the first to appear in the fairy garden, ensuring it is safe for the fairies to appear. They say it isn't. They were right, moments after this the hail came down. 🌱

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

Brief spell of sunshine this morning after days of rain, but these daffodils look only somewhat beaten down. Mind you, we had hail in the afternoon. 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

I was in the Nubia Gallery at the ROM yesterday, and noticed this 4th century CE box from the ROM excavations at Gebel Adda in Nubia (near the first cataract in Egypt). What interested me were the "sphinxes" with *wings* as wings are not in the Egyptian tradition, but in the West Asian tradition. 🏺

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Magnified examination of the Anglo-Saxon & Medieval North Elmham pottery at the ROM yesterday. I had a magnifying lens on my head, as well, so the magnification was greater than what you see here! I was not working with fresh breaks, but you could see the fabric in some cases. #medievalsky 🏺

Magnified view of a shell-tempered St. Neot's Type Ware

Magnified view of a fine-grained Thetford Type Ware

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 06/04/2026

It seems this viola seedling is eager to take it's place in the garden! 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

We are having carrots for Easter Sunday dinner. Other stuff, as well, but I'm responsible for getting the carrots ready!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Easter Sunday Irises in the front garden on the sunny side of the house. Okay, not exactly sunny today, but I did go out at least long enough to take this photo! 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Happy Easter to all those that observe it! And a lovely Spring day off to those that don't! This is the "Tomb of the Righteous One" in Nazareth, the nuns that found it say it is the tomb of St. Joseph. My photo of 2008.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I recently finished a short series of stories for Medium and used Hero Forge to create the header image. It really does make cute images! @heroforgeminis.bsky.social

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I was at the ROM this week working on pottery from excavations at North Elmham in Norfolk. Here are some very nice 13th-14th century Grimston Ware handles! #medievalsky 🏺

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

As someone that studies the past I know better than to think artists depict reality. However, I suspect the strong women of the past depicted in "Calling in the Gleaners" (1859) by Jules Breton would take any incel going on about "trad wives" or "women being women" and slap some sense into them.

"Le rappel des glaneuses" (Calling in the Gleaners), 1859, by Jules Breton. The image is set in Courrières, Breton's native village in Artois, France. Oil on canvas painting currently housed in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

It was a lovely day yesterday, and I finally managed to clear up the fallen leaves from the Autumn! The early snow rather hampered my usual routine! Today it is raining, so I am posting this nice photo of snowdrops in the fairy garden on the north side of the house. 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

I love old paintings of the Countryside, before it was filled with massive lorries plummeting along the narrow lanes with a death-wish. This is, of course, "The Hay Wain" (1821) by John Constable, depicting the Stour between Suffolk and Essex. My parents had a print and said it was the New Forest!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

The old folks did some fine horse coins.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

There is still snow and ice on the ground, but this south-facing slope on the sunny side of the house is ready for Spring! 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

I was in at the ROM yesterday and was glad to see the Safavid tile panel was still up!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Portraits of Vladimir Putin, Bashar al-Assad (Syria), Ali Khamenei (Iran), and Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah) in Aleppo, Syria, in 2017.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

In ancient times Gaza was the port at the end of the Incense Road, bringing frankincense and myrrh from Yemen to the Mediterranean. This map shows Nabataean sites which controlled the land route, and the Red Sea route through Ayla (Aqaba).

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23/02/2026

The Gaza area has been on a coastline for hundreds of millions of years, once on the boundary between Pangaea and the Tethys Ocean. The sea-level has risen and fallen, each time a new beach was created. So ancient cemented sands run in ridges parallel to the coast, creating the present landscape.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 17/02/2026

I have been reading about the history of Gaza lately. Apparently they minted very early coins from the mid-5th century based on the Athenian silver drachm, but with the bearded head of their own deity rather than Athena. Unfortunately the ROM doesn't have one so I stole this image from the internet!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 01/02/2026

I was recently sent some 17th century Iranian Safavid tile images that are of the type in a book published by Lisa Golombek and I last year. Most of them we had already seen, but one added the poop-deck to our ship!

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

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.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23/12/2025

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

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

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

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 09/12/2025

Working on the North Elmham medieval pottery from England at the ROM and found this guy. Seems a merry sort. 🏺 #MedievalSky #Archaeology

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 14/11/2025

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.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 11/11/2025

MEN! Have you thought about the Roman Empire today? 🏺 My pic of 2005.

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

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!

Italy WWI Group of British Sailors at the Vatican

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

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...

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

I thought I had better get a pic of these fuchsias before the frost hits tonight! 🌱 #FlowerReport

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Dr. Robert Barry Mason @robertmason.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

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

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