Dr. Robert Barry Mason
@robertmason.bsky.social
Archaeology, museums, science, & my garden (with railway). I also write fantasy stories (in an effort to keep the fantasy out of my archaeology). Tolkien & Pratchett nerd. 🌱🏹🏺🗡️📚📖⛏️✍️🚀🪐⚒️🚂
The conclusion of my exciting three part space-opera about archaeologists being abducted by Space Pirates! Published by The Kraken Lore on Medium!! #SciFi #ShortStory #TheKrakenLore #Medium 💙📚🪐 thekrakenlore.com/space-pirate...
Space Pirates on Overtime 3
The reckoning
thekrakenlore.com
Back to a bit of coin photography @romtoronto.bsky.social today's favourite is a Denarius of Nerva from 97 CE, mint of Rome. The reverse side has incredible detail of Concordia embodied as clasped hands, on a coin that measures but 27.9 mm! 🪙 #MuseumWork #numismatics #coins #handshake
More excitement in the second of my three part space-opera about archaeologists being abducted by Space Pirates! Published by The Kraken Lore on Medium!! #SciFi #ShortStory #TheKrakenLore #Medium 💙📚🪐 medium.com/the-kraken-l...
Space Pirates on Overtime 2
The Pursuers
medium.com
Goblins have taken over the Fairy Garden Railway! #GardenRailway #ModelTrain #Gscaletrains #Gscale #FairyGarden #FairyGardenRailway
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
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! 📚
Today is #HobbitDay because Bilbo and Frodo Baggins were both born on September 22nd. Normally we'd shire a hobbit pun or two but it might just feel like a tolkien gesture and we don't want to embarrass our elves. Anyway it's a good day to come and boromir #Tolkien books. 📚
Happy Hobbit Day! Recently I realised that as I get older & better remember being under 4' tall & going on adventures, I wanted to be a Hobbit. But one that did magic. Thinking about how & where that might occur led to a story. #HobbitDay 💙📚🪐 #Fantasy medium.com/@Robert_Barr...
List: Tales of the Vale | Curated by Robert Barry | Medium
Tales of the Vale · The adventures of Blys & Bertie can be romantic and cozy, or at times dangerous and scary. Join them as they learn the ways of magic, and try to make a better world for their peopl...
medium.com
Innocent archaeologists abducted by Space Pirates? High space adventure short story just published by The Kraken Lore on Medium!! #SciFi #ShortStory #TheKrakenLore #Medium 💙📚🪐 thekrakenlore.com/space-pirate...
Space Pirates on Overtime 1
The Abduction
thekrakenlore.com
Once again my article "A Map of Middle Earth in the Third Age" is my most popular thing in Medium. I wish some of them would give it a few claps! medium.com/@Robert_Barr...
A Map of Middle Earth in the Third Age
Me Tolkien nonsense
medium.com
Friend shared this video of a man unveiling the library he hid when he fled Damascus in 2011. It’s incredible
Being a bit of a Tolkien geek, I find the discussions of his legendarium on Quora quite compelling. The latest question I have addressed is "What do you consider to be the most evil deed within Tolkien’s legendarium?" www.quora.com/What-do-you-...?
What do you consider to be the most evil deed within Tolkien’s legendarium?
Robert's answer: People often think that corrupting elves to create the race of orcs was a bad thing, but when you dig deeper, it is even worse. Tolkien was deeply romantic. It may not be obvious, bu...
quora.com
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
Found in 1856 during the cutting of a grave for Martha Brown (whose sad tale inspired Thomas Hardy to write Tess of the d’Urbervilles) this Roman mosaic belonged to a 4th century townhouse Lifted and set into Dorchester prison chapel the mosaic now resides in Dorset Museum 📷 Sep 2026 #MosaicMonday
An encouraging article about Syria. www.vaticannews.va/en/world/new...
Syria’s only female minister follows in footsteps of Jesuit 'mentor' Paolo Dall'Oglio - Vatican News
Syria’s Minister for Labour and Social Affairs tells Vatican News that dialogue between ethnic and religious groups is helping the country rebuild ...
vaticannews.va
Being among those who think about Father Paolo often, I would like to know his fate, also. www.arabnews.com/middle-east/...
Friends of Italian priest long missing in Syria hope for news
Friends of Italian priest long missing in Syria hope for news
arabnews.com
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
Reconstruction mock-up over 'groovesvillewkd' image of Warkworth Castle, Northumberland (England). A Percy family stronghold. #WarkworthCastle #HistoryRebuilt #EnglishCastles
The remains of St. Olaf’s Kirk - a 12th century Norse Church located at Lunda Wick on Unst in Shetland @kpw1453.bsky.social info/image post turned into a mock-up suggestion.
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
For significant amounts of time my train of thought circles around a Zen fairy garden. #GardenRailway #ModelTrain #Gscaletrains #Gscale #FairyGarden #FairyGardenRailway
Finished up recording the samples from Serce Liman this week. Next week I will start turning them into thin sections for petrographic analysis! #archaeology 🏺
Dear Elder Scrolls Online, please make clothes like this. Also a nice basket-hilt broadsword. Thank you. @elderscrollsonline.com #ESO
Anyone on here do photographs of pottery fabrics? Do you like whole sherd sections, or a close-up of the fabric? #archaeology 🏺
Sorry for not being very active on this platform lately, I've just been so busy in the garden! #FairyGarden #GardenRailway #FairyGardenRailway
Purple Erasmus Asparagus is on the menu! It's been 3 years since I first grew them from seed, but worth the wait! From here on in, it is easy spring harvests 🌱🌱🌱
