With a main research interest in pottery-making technology in the Predynastic period, Masahiro joined the Hierakonpolis Expedition in 2003, just as we were restarting the excavations at HK11C, a locality long believed to contain pottery kilns. Thanks largely to his continuous work at the site, we now know that pottery kilns are only part of the story at HK11C. Over the years he has gradually revealed the well-preserved industrial complex there, which includes the well-preserved brewery, with huge vats for brewing beer, the associated pit-kilns for firing the jars to hold the beer, another structure for cooking meat and fish, and a still enigmatic mudbrick structure. So while pottery remains a keen interest, the focus has more recently shifted to beer—its manufacture, its containers, its associated industries, and of course its consumption (both now and in the past).
With archaeological data from Hierakonpolis and the materials stored at the British Museum, he carried out the petrographical and chemical analyses at Cardiff University, the results of which were the basis for his doctorate, which he received from the Department of Archaeology at Waseda University in Japan. He now lectures on the Ancient Egypt at the Institute of Egyptology at Waseda University, and is a curator at the Archaeological Museum of Waseda University,
Masahiro has been excavating at Hierakonpolis almost continuously since 2003, but it not the only place he has worked. Beginning in 1995, he also took part in the Waseda University expeditions excavating in the Western Valley of the Kings, Abusir South and Dahshur North. From 2005 to 2007 he was the field-director of the Dahshur North mission, during which intact tombs and beautiful coffins of the Middle and New Kingdom were discovered.
For publications see:
https://waseda.academia.edu/MasahiroBaba