Dr Tess Machling
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tessmachling.bsky.social
Dr Tess Machling
@tessmachling.bsky.social
7.6K followers 1.7K following 9.7K posts
Archaeologist, gold & torc researcher, chocolate artefact maker & mum. Often post about cats who aren't mine...

Views all my own 😊
Green party 💚

She/her 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Work on torcs & gold: https://bigbookoftorcs.com

Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/tess317409
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tessmachling.bsky.social
As a break from insanity that is archaeology, I spent the morning helping plant 1000 fritillary bulbs in Verulamium park - part of a superb project to make River Ver a bit more healthy & a bit less floody...

Really lovely bunch of folks. 😊

I've even got me own hi-viz & found a bit of Roman tile! 🤣
The plan for the river - with overflow channels, wetland areas and wild planting Team Fritillary digging holes! My hi-viz - blue with Ver Valley Society written on the back.
November 11, 2025 at 12:59 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Hello folks. I've been making plaster of paris artefacts/decorations for friends.

I'm opening it up here now - all items incl. postage (UK only, sadly) & gift packaging. I can send things within a week, usually faster.

Anyway, if there's anything you fancy, message/email me! 😊

#Archaeology 🏺
Price list for arrow heads, axes and torc terminal Price list for axe, shields and brooch decorations.
November 10, 2025 at 1:42 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Yeah exactly. Art and design isn't just added deco. My favourite torc ever, which i think is incredibly beautiful is this one from Snettisham...

It is so stunningly precise and simple in its make, and I'm sure intended to be just that...
A silvery ring terminal torc with very precise twists.
November 8, 2025 at 8:21 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
The 6th one...
A gold ring terminal torc
November 8, 2025 at 8:04 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Oh my!!! 😲

#CabinPressure
Two yellow cars, waiting in traffic...
November 7, 2025 at 11:29 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
November 5, 2025 at 8:56 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
This it almost as good as Boudica: Queen of War where our gal Boudica can be seen wearing a British Museum shop pendant...
Boudica wearing a modern torc terminal pendant necklace (where it came from is one of the - very much complete - Ipswich gold torcs)
October 31, 2025 at 8:45 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
With huge thanks to my friend Patrick for spotting this.

The new MGM Robin Hood series.

Sean Bean as the Sheriff of Nottingham...

...wearing a horse-bit as a cloak fastener!!!!

Crying!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

#Archaeology 🏺
Sean Bean resting on his arm while eating. His cloak is fastened with a horse bit!!
October 31, 2025 at 8:15 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Here -
My post
October 23, 2025 at 8:08 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Listening to a podcast and just heard someone say that a certain politician never 'got their gander up'...

🤣🤣🤣
A cartoon goose, honking...
October 23, 2025 at 6:09 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I always mean to take photos of this, but always forget - I rather like the design of the British Library and how it compares and contrasts to the fabulously opulent St Pancras hotel...

Always makes me smile when I come out of Kings Cross St Pancras station.
The very modern, red brick with red and green trim, British Library alongside the opulent red and green St Pancras hotel. The very modern, red brick with red and green trim, British Library alongside the opulent red and green St Pancras hotel.
October 22, 2025 at 6:41 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
*Snoopy torc dance!*
Snoopy, wearing a gold torc and doing his dance!
October 19, 2025 at 8:36 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Weekend crossword in the Grauniad today...

He's gets everywhere, that @zackpolanski.bsky.social !! 🤣
Crossword clue - Green party leader (4,8)
October 18, 2025 at 10:57 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
On this day in history... 🤣🤣🤣

@theduncanmackay.bsky.social !
A tweet from Duncan: Duncan Mackay @theDuncanMackay Ok, stick with me here... One for the fellow Snettisham nerds Just watched a brilliant YouTube video on gold torcs by @Tess_Machling and this flashed into my mind... TUBULAR TORCS by Mike GOLDFIELD Thank you very much, I'm here all week!
October 15, 2025 at 6:14 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
... and, yes, he can channel Puss in Boots like a pro...
Bruce looking plaintive while I unlock the door Puss in Boots looking similarly plaintive
October 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Btw for those who've been wondering about the cats who aren't mine...

Bruschetta moved house with her owners 😭😭 but with Bruce I am now so well trained that all he has to do is shout at the back door and I'm there!! 🤣🤣🤣
My little buddy Bruce, who's learnt to stand on the recycling box by the back door and yowl until I come running...
October 12, 2025 at 12:59 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Tidying the garden with my sidekick...

... who kept attacking my feet until I stopped to play with him!! 🤣🤣

#Bruce
#CatWhoIsNotMyCat
#Sunday
Bruce, who's a grey cat with orange eyes, just getting ready to pounce on me!!
October 12, 2025 at 12:51 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Not a great pic, but a flock of long tailed t1ts just tweeted their way tthrough the garden. ♥️
Two birds in a tree
October 12, 2025 at 9:03 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
This is what I *actually* said in the Norfolk Archaeology review. Not exactly 'sparkling' is it @oxbowbooks.bsky.social ? :
Norfolk Archaeology 2 (2023), 216-225 BOOK REVIEWS The Snettisham Hoards Julia Farley and Jody Joy (eds) London, British Museum Research Publication 225, 2023 728 pages, 400 illustrations A4 paperback, 2 volumes, slipcase ISBN: 978-0-861592-25-8 For anyone interested in the Iron Age, the Snettisham volumes are long awaited. Bringing together finds and archaeological work carried out over the last 70 years, the volumes manage to integrate the many disparate stories of the Snettisham 'gold field': from Ray Williamson's (note: not 'P.L. Williamson') first discoveries in 1948 through to 2009. The volumes are, on the whole, sensibly organised and thanks to the concordance information (Appendix 3) - easy to interrogate. Part 1 examines the site itself, and details the various programmes of work, placing the site in its geographical and archaeological context. Of particular interest are the previously unpublished details of the 1990s excavation and the 2006-2009 geophysics (which identified a series of rectilinear ditched enclosures, that appear to be respected by the hoard depositions). Chapters 6 to 10 remind us that the Snettisham 'gold field' is not just a later Iron Age site. Detailing the Neolithic, Bronze Age and earlier Iron Age finds which predate the hoard site, and the Roman activity that occurred after, these chapters show that this was a multiperiod landscape used from earlier prehistory onwards. Part II focuses on the hoards themselves. The detail of each hoard excavation is given with numerous beautiful photographs and illustrations allowing an easy understanding of the hoard pit stratigraphies. Coding of the colour of each torc is also given within the hoards although, without further alloy composition analysis (see below), it is uncertain how much use this subjective quantification is. Chapter 13 details the typology of the torcs and offers a much needed standardised terminology for torcs, which builds upon previous work. One confusing section (… Book Reviews is not always applicable reinforces colonial, Western focused, ideas of gold working, for which there is limited proof in prehistory. It also leads to misunderstanding. For example, the 'mottled texture' seen in torc A.6 (p.168) can be straightforwardly explained if the torc was worked from the exterior using a method akin to the Japanese uchidashi technique. Also within the catalogue, a piece of gold ribbon (F.67) does not appear to have been recognised as what could be an untwisted example of a specifically Bronze Age ribbon torc. If Bronze Age, rather than Iron Age (suggested by the simple twist of a plain ribbon of gold, rather than the complicated hammered manufacture seen in Iron Age examples) this is an important find. Its inclusion within the sealed Hoard F is worthy of further discussion, which does not occur. However, of particular interest and significance is the recognition and painstaking reconstruction of the fragmentary helmet found in Hoard F. This helmet is a very rare Iron Age artefact and an important find. Continuing on, Chapter 15 ably pulls together the many studies carried out on the Snettisham coins. This chapter is comprehensive, nuanced and detailed and includes a catalogue of coins. Volume II includes chapters on conservation, scientific analysis and explorations of torc biography, decoration and the role of hoards. The examination of the conservation of the tores is a reminder of how much archaeological and conservation practice has changed over 70 years, and how many of the torcs were not found in the condition that we see them in today. Chapter 17, which deals with the technology and manufacture of the torcs is for me as a gold researcher who looks at torcs from a craft perspective and works with a team of goldsmiths often a hard one to read. The section about wires is comprehensive and well achieved, marrying scientific examination with experimental work by John Fenn, a practicing metalsmith. The insights from this du…
October 10, 2025 at 10:04 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Seeing as @oxbowbooks.bsky.social sought to cherry pick my review of Snettisham, I thought I would add from the rest of my review.

You might also wish to read longer review here, which goes into detail about my significant issues with the books:

bigbookoftorcs.com/2024/12/11/t...

#Archaeology 🏺
A snipped section of my review for Norfolk Archaeology, describing it as 'Another sparkling review for the Snettisham Hoards' Another section from my review for Norfolk Archaeology: "However, for the examination of the terminals and other metalwork, omitting the insights of goldsmiths has led to some evidentially unsupportable conclusions (see torc L.14 above). The most glaring of these occurs with the 'iconic' Great Torc which is incorrectly identified as being of sheet and cast hybrid construction. The multiple evidence seen on the Great Torc (dents, cracks and hammering), comparable examples (e.g. the Netherurd and Near Stowmarket terminals), and previous research (Maching & Williamson 2020) which supports the interpretation of the Great torc terminals having been created using gold sheet has been largely ignored."
October 10, 2025 at 6:25 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I made these for friends last year, but seeing if anyone else would be interested for xmas? They're painted plaster of paris, modelled from real arrowheads.

£35 a set incl. gift box, gift tag & 24hr SignedFor postage (sorry, can only do UK).

(... & there's more artefacts to come!)

#Archaeology 🏺
Rainbow coloured arrowheads on rainbow coloured ribbons.
October 9, 2025 at 8:58 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I was thinking more...
The record sleeve for Orville the Duck's song- I wish i could fly...
October 8, 2025 at 8:52 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
I remembered a sweet chestnut tree I'd seen in the park, that was a bit pathetic then... but this is mast year!! 🏆

Despite already having been scavenged & squibbled (squirrel-nibbled!), I managed to get something! ❤️

...and it made me get off my arse, stop feeling sorry for myself & do a thing! 🤣
A china bowl full of shiny brown sweet chestnuts
October 6, 2025 at 12:39 PM
tessmachling.bsky.social
Meanwhile, in 'ya don't f*king say' land, Reform discover that governing ain't quite so easy...

' "Everyone thought we'd come in and there were going to be these huge costs we could cut away but there just aren't," said a third senior Reform cabinet member in Kent. '
Reform poised to raise Kent council tax as Musk-inspired attack on costs falters ANNA GROSS - KENT Kent's local authority will probably raise council tax rates next year as Reform UK struggles to find big savings under an Elon Musk-inspired cost-cutting drive. Kent was one of 10 councils that Nigel Farage's rightwing populist party seized in a swath of local election victories in May. He vowed to save "a lot of money" by abolishing "wasteful" spending. But Diane Morton, Reform's cabinet member for adult social care on Kent county council, told the Financial Times that services were already "down to the bare bones". an "We've got more demand than ever before and it's growing," she said, stress-ing she did not believe access to those services should be limited. "We just want more money." As with many local authorities in England, the bulk of Kent's budget went on adult and chil-dren's social care, as well as on children with special educational needs, which together accounted for about 50 per cent of its £2.5bn annual expenditure. All councils have a legal duty to bal-ance their books and will set next year's budgets in February or March. Ahead of that, most councils in England are expected to increase council tax by 5 per cent, the maximum allowed. "I think it's going to be 5 per cent," Morton said of where Kent would land on tax rises, adding that every 1 per cent increase equated to an extra £10mn. Council leader Linden Kemkaran, a former BBC journalist, said Kent was a test bed for the party's national policies and the "shop window through which everybody is going to see what a Reform government might look like". She declined to say whether council tax would be raised but other Reform coun-cillors said they wanted to avoid hitting the full 5 per cent. Reform's experience highlights some of the obstacles it may face in national government if it won the next general election and pursued its pledge to slash taxes and spending. "Everyone thought we'd come …
October 6, 2025 at 7:08 AM
tessmachling.bsky.social
2025...
A washed up bottle with a note inside - note says 'please help! We are stuck on a small island with a bunch of [tory is crossed out and replaced with Labour] psychopaths! Thanks Britain'
October 5, 2025 at 8:57 AM