And that time of year is fast approaching again @helengittos.bsky.social Roll on Cerne excavation Season 4 in July!

Pleased to see my paper on the production and use of millefiori in Britain and Ireland (c. AD 580–850) published open access by @antiquaries.bsky.social A labour of love for a while now and definitely the most colourful illustrations I’ve ever produced, they were a bit of a nightmare to draw up...

Good morning world 🐝 The red mason bees are emerging in my garden this sunny morning

An absolutely gorgeous day here at Sherborne where I’ve been delivering the annual Jim Gibb lecture. The abbey looks resplendent against the cloudless sky!

On another damp, fog-bound day here in the Pennines, I thought I’d share a few of the lustrous fragments of Saxon glass that I've just submitted for publication. Deposited in the early 8th century AD, they still sparkle with joy 1,300 years later 🏺✨

Excited that my volume on the Early Bronze Age coffined burial from Tetney is now published open access by @antiquaries.bsky.social! Now everyone can read about this amazing find dated to 2032 BC and containing an amazing array of environmental and artefactual data. library.oapen.org/viewer/web/v...

Wind, what wind? Today, hardy sheffielduni.bsky.social archaeology students have been out demonstrating their Yorkshire mettle at #CerneAbbey in Dorset, despite Storm Chandra's best efforts

Finally had a chance to go through some of our finds from last year's excavation at #CerneAbbey & thought I would share this gem. Book clasps are quite common finds on monastic sites but this little fella is the finest I've ever excavated & must have come from a pretty fancy prayer book or psalter

It's been a pleasure collaborating with @helengittos.bsky.social on such an engaging and fun project!

The latest @timeteam.bsky.social feature length episode focusing on our excavations at Cerne Abbey has gone live. It's fantastic to see the work we've been doing over the last couple of years shared with everyone! 🏺 🐈‍⬛ youtu.be/DY68mzYXWK8?...

Well it's been a while in the making, but this Saturday sees the release of the Time Team feature length episode focusing on our work at Cerne Abbey www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7Tm...

A little teaser from @timeteam.bsky.social highlighting the forthcoming full length episode coming out soon looking at our work at Cerne Abbas... 🙈 youtu.be/lL1ucbcLwLg?...

Pleased to see some coverage by the BBC of our excavations at #CerneAbbey which concluded at the weekend! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Today has been spent excavating an intact (if crushed) section of tiled floor in the east range of #CerneAbbey First laid down in c.1300, it’s survived remarkably well!🏺

Pleased to welcome back team supervisor Walter on our excavations at #CerneAbbey 🏺🐈‍⬛

The big man of Cerne looking resplendent at dusk yesterday. Whilst he usually grabs all the attention, The Trendle earthwork that sits just above him was looking even more fantastic!

A week to go before @hugh-willmott.bsky.social's third season of excavations at #cerneabbey! Here's an @timeteam.bsky.social reminder of what a gloriously evocative site it is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctpR...

This time next week all this (and more) should be exposed again as excavations recommence at #CerneAbbey 🏺 We'll continue to work on the late medieval hall but also start investigating the intriguing earlier features that began to appear at the end of last season...

A small selection of medieval tiles found last year at #CerneAbbey 🏺 Perfect entertainment for any jigsaw enthusiasts out there! #TilesOnTuesday

Thinking about hill figures, another I’m really interested in is the Westbury White Horse. What you see today was permanently ‘preserved’ to prevent erosion by being covered in concrete in 1957. But what lurks beneath is rather more interesting… (1/4)

Talking again to @helengittos.bsky.social about hill figures, I'm reminded of a 🧵 I posted elsewhere about my favourite ones excavated by TC Lethbridge on Wandlebury Hill, Cambridge in 1954. His findings were dismissed by his contemporaries as a combination of natural & invented features (1/5)

With summer just around the corner, I thought I'd share one of my favourite tiles excavated at #CerneAbbey last year. Perhaps we'll find the other half in a few weeks time? #TilesOnTuesday

Wow, what better way to end a stressful week than to see one’s collaborative research featured on the cover of @appliedspec.bsky.social! All credit to @sheonashankland.bsky.social for leading this impactful project 🏺🦴

Last week I had the opportunity to revisit my favourite pub carpet for the first time in several years. It's experienced a lot of wear since I last saw it, and now looks even more medieval! A perfect offering for #TilesOnTuesday ?

Really chuffed that our publication of the gorgeous Scremby Cup has been selected as cambridgeuparchaeo.bsky.social paper of the month ☺️ With Roman enamelwork 🏺, an Anglo-Saxon burial ☠️ and of course lard 🐷, there's a bit of something for everyone! And it's free to download for the next 30 days

Two possible responses to the way 2025 is already unfolding. I'm not sure which approach to adopt in the coming days/weeks.

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Personally, I'd love to see local byelaws insisting "googly eyes" be placed on every public sculpture. I'm just worried the Great British public would respond with "goolies" instead www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/ar...

I'm not sure which is more pleasing, finding out my research is currently fronting the science page of Newsweek, or the fact the Scremby bowl shares top billing with a cat... 🏺 🐈‍⬛ www.newsweek.com/mystery-uniq...

Got to say I’m rather honoured to have been able to excavate this amazing cup and also rather pleased with our analysis and publication! 🏺

Nice to see this article highlighting our research into the Scremby Cup. It's got to be the most unusual object I've ever excavated and it has a fascinating biography to it! 🥛🐖 www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

My Mrs is trying to persuade me that the cat has shed his summer coat with the changing season. I remain unconvinced…

For anyone outside of the sector, here's a very accessible and succinct overview of the imminent collapse in UK higher education It's worth highlighting that only 12% of university income comes from direct government funding... theweek.com/education/uk...

This picture of me intently examining a rather unusual 'find' uncovered by @lawrence-shaw.bsky.social at #CerneAbbey this summer seems particularly appropriate for #FindsFriday 🏺 🐈‍⬛

I'm very excited with these professional photographs for the report on the Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Scremby, which I excavated shortly before the pandemic. The clarity of the mineralised fabric surviving on the back of this cruciform brooch (c.AD 475-550) is astounding! #FindsFriday #FabricFriday

On a cold and rather dull day, what could be better to cheer one up than this rather chipper fellow! One of my favourite floor tiles that we've excavated at #CerneAbbey! 🏺 #TilesOnTuesday

For #FindsFriday I thought I would share one final montage of medieval window glass fragments excavated this summer at #CerneAbbey Although they've clearly seen better days they're lovely nonetheless!

Medieval window glass usually weather black when buried, like the fragments in my previous post. But this 13th-century piece from #CerneAbbey is remarkably well preserved and really shows the artistry of the painters. For scale, the crosshatched lines are spaced 1-2mm apart 😍

Thought I would share this picture of some delicately painted medieval window glass from my excavation at #CerneAbbey this summer. They're sat on the surface of a mortar floor where they had lain since the were discarded at the Dissolution 485 yrs ago ⛪

This morning, Monty our new rescue cat has gone into 'puddle mode'. A picture of pure kitty contentment! 🐈‍⬛ 💤 #CatsInBaskets

I'm overwhelmed by the followers I've had in just 5 days of being here. But for those of you who don't know me, I'm a British archaeologist 🏺 with interests in: -The medieval period c. 500-1600 AD -Monasticism ⛪ -My excavation at Cerne Abbey (no not the giant) -Cats. One can never get enough cats 🐈‍⬛

Don't worry, I'm not proposing to recycle all my previous posts from *that* other site. However, I am particularly proud of this one and want it saved for posterity. It was posted on 1st April, not that a lot of people seemed to notice the date 😉

Although this particular fur friend of mine is sadly no longer with us, on a grey day such as this I'm always cheered up remembering the time she thought fragments of Anglo-Saxon glassmaking crucible were jolly tasty looking cat treats. Disaster was only just avoided... 🐈‍⬛ 🏺 #CatsEatingArchaeology

New paper using archaeological material from Thornton Abbey to enhance our understanding of age-related changes in bone mineral chemistry of the lumbar spine in modern populations 👇 Thanks to @profaliceroberts.bsky.social who originally put the team in touch! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

I'm finally making the switch, so it might take a while to settle in and find friends. But hopefully plenty of archaeology and cats (and even cats on archaeology) to follow soon...