Rob Hedge
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robhedge.bsky.social
Rob Hedge
@robhedge.bsky.social
Archaeologist. PhD research at University of Leicester: peasant perspectives and medieval settlement in the Severn Valley. Freelance artefact analysis, education & illustration. Scribbles a lot. MCIfA 🏺
https://incurablearchaeologist.wordpress.com/
Spent the morning turning this into a tiny zine. Printing, cutting, folding - a tiny analogue act of resistance to the news we’ve had this week about cuts to History at Leicester.
I’ll bring them along to the @leicesterucu.bsky.social demo on Weds 12th November if you’d like your own copy.
November 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Rob Hedge
Less than a month to go for submission of abstracts! Papers invited for the Life and Landscape Research Showcase at the University of Nottingham.
November 5, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Doing my ECB level 2 cricket coaching qualification. It’s great…
… but yesterday’s enthusiasm (“wicket keeping is great fun, why did I never do it… maybe it’s not too late?”) has been tempered by today’s bruises and aches. Newfound respect for all you ‘keepers.🫡
November 3, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Teifi Marshes Nature Reserve* Parkrun this weekend was an excellent opportunity to pay a Samhain visit to an old friend.

*yes, it is lovely. But yes, the hill at the end is every bit as horrible as they warn you.
November 2, 2025 at 9:32 PM
I recently went back to @maacambridge.bsky.social for the first time in years. I love the direction the museum is taking, but was delighted to see this familiar old friend!
My illustration of it is available on T-shirts etc in my Teemill shop: incurablearchaeologist.teemill.com/search/?sear... 🏺
October 15, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Rob Hedge
Both in our collections. A researcher from Paris said that they didn't think the arrowhead was French, but made by someone very skilled who had seen French arrowheads.
#ArchInk 4: bronze; 5: flint; 9: ivory
#archaeology #illustration 🏺🏛️🗃️
Combining three prompts to look at early-19th century views of early Bronze Age artefacts.
October 12, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Rob Hedge
Researchers from Athens say that the ones like the gold-studded Bush Barrow dagger (a later version of the one in this drawing) inspired Mycenaean gold-workers. Lots of European links in the Bronze Age - Cunnington and Colt Hoare were right!
#ArchInk 4: bronze; 5: flint; 9: ivory
#archaeology #illustration 🏺🏛️🗃️
Combining three prompts to look at early-19th century views of early Bronze Age artefacts.
October 12, 2025 at 11:44 AM
#ArchInk 4: bronze; 5: flint; 9: ivory
#archaeology #illustration 🏺🏛️🗃️
Combining three prompts to look at early-19th century views of early Bronze Age artefacts.
October 11, 2025 at 2:43 PM
#ArchInk 2: shell; 3: residue; 6: horn; 7: textile; 8: stratigraphy
#inktober #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺🏛️🗃️
Combining a few prompts to tell the story of Worcester Cathedral’s Cockleshell Pilgrim.
October 9, 2025 at 8:11 AM
#ArchInk 1: pigment
#inktober #medievalsky #skystorians 🏺🏛️🗃️

Not sure how much I’ll be able to contribute this year, but I’ll try to chip in when I can.
October 7, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Had a grand time this afternoon chatting to students in Orlando, Florida about the advantages and limitations of tech in #archaeology. Give ‘em a few years and I’m sure one of them will crack my request for a portable C14 robot…
Enthusiastic kids & doesn’t take too much of your time… get involved! 🏺
Welp here we are again, fresh out of Archaeologists for Skype a Scientist matches.

This fall, we have matched 248 groups with Archaeologists for online Q&As. I have 38 more groups who need a match, but I'm out of Archaeologists!

Archaeologists! Please volunteer
www.skypeascientist.com/sign-up.html
a woman is smiling and holding a cup that says help me .
Alt: a woman is smiling and holding a cup that says help me .
media.tenor.com
October 6, 2025 at 6:27 PM
A new comic: A brief history of History at the University of Leicester.
You can download the originals and find links to further reading on my blog: incurablearchaeologist.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/l... #skystorians 🏛️🏺🗃️
Individual panels are threaded below:
October 2, 2025 at 11:19 AM
Brian Patten has died. Thawing Frozen Frogs was given to me as a small child: the first poetry I really *got*. The fact that I had to fish this dog-eared volume out of my son’s bedroom is testament to his gift: surreal, silly, funny, and moving. Sometimes all at once.
October 1, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Family walk around NT Croome yesterday. “What are those birds, daddy?” Glossy ibis, right in front of us! Inevitably, I’d left my camera at home… #worcsbirds
September 29, 2025 at 9:07 AM
September 22, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Still buzzing from Worcestershire’s #OneDayCup triumph last night. Took the boy to Trent Bridge, spent the day dodging the rain. Skies cleared for just long enough to witness an all-time classic. Stands full of friends, family and the grassroots #cricket community 🏏
September 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM
It’s been quite a week (+month, year etc), so here’s a little #FindsFriday / #FlintFriday treat for your timelines: a gorgeous little Mesolithic ‘mèche de foret’ (drill bit) from my desk. Retouched edges abraded to a smooth sheen by repeated use. 🏺🏛️
September 19, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Joined a friend for the southern leg of his solo Malverns marathon this morning, over the marvellous hillforts at Midsummer Hill and British Camp. Started warm and dry. Then several hours of unremitting downpour, brightened only by abundant lightning.
How it started vs how it’s going:
September 7, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Couldn’t resist the lure of a medieval World Heritage Site AND a #Parkrun! Fabulous course around and amidst the ruins of Fountains Abbey this morning.
August 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM
50th #Parkrun and a PB this morning at Worcester Pitchcroft.
After a challenging week, it really is the best way to start the weekend!
August 9, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Reposted by Rob Hedge
It's 1629 and they're *still* after you. It's so long ago now that they've started getting the date wrong!
August 6, 2025 at 9:52 AM
🤫. I’ve got away with this for 428 years, only to be outed on Bluesky. The archive always gets you in the end… 🗃️
July 23, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Working on 🏺 artefacts, there are times when you need to take a step back, to think conceptually about a site at a distance from the stuff. One method I use is to think through sketching.
These are usually quick, rough sketches that never see the light of day…
July 22, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Wonderful thread on the amount of thought and depth of knowledge that goes into an archaeological illustration, and on living with the uncertainty:
A new piece, my recent illo depicting long distance transport of wild boars to Asiab in the early Iranian #Neolithic. I’ve reposted a couple articles featuring the illustration but here’s the whole image and some detail crops.
#archaeology 🏺 #SciArt 🐡
1/9
July 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM
This is an excellent thread. Worth adding: the legislation didn’t work. It didn’t work because that imagined class of peasant—the able bodied idle poor—did not exist. The legislation imagined a paradoxical peasant, simultaneously being too entrepreneurial and too lazy.
So this phrase “able-bodied” has clearly been on the most recent list of R talking points. It comes from the first round of English labor laws, which were instituted after the Black Death.

A mini medieval story time!
Jim Jordan: "If there's an able-bodied adult out there now who is in our welfare system, guess what -- that person is going to have to work ... that is far from immoral."
July 9, 2025 at 1:56 PM