Aardvarchaeology

[More blog entries about history, carnival, ancient, classics, medieval, middleages; historia, antiken, medeltiden, klassisk.]

Welcome, everyone, to Aardvarchaeology and the 27th Carnivalesque blog carnival! Aard is a blog about archaeology and skepticism and stuff, hosted here at ScienceBlogs among a bunch of natural-science blogs, most covering the life sciences. Carnivalesque deals in Ancient, Medieval and (in even-numbered instalments) Early Modern history, subjects in which I am interested but of which I am largely ignorant. Yes, I am a prehistorian. Let me classify your kitchen ware and section the contents of your cess pit! Let me put the cremated fragments of your skeleton in a neatly labeled plastic bag! Just don't expect me to know about kings and battles and named people, OK?

• Mary at A Don's Life writes about Hannibal, that Phoenician-descended, Baal-cultist elephant fancier. She isn't one of his admirers.
• Tony at Memorabilia Antonina discusses parallels Mary B. drew last month between Hadrian's Wall and the fence commissioned by Bush II to keep out the Mexicans.
• Another Scottish wall is also in the news: attempts are being made to put the Antonine wall on the World Heritage list. Adrian at Bread and Circuses has the latest developments here and here.
• Here's something pretty far-out: a forgotten account of the Council of Niceae in AD 325, written by one Marutha of Maiperqat and translated from the Ancient Syriac. Steve Muhlberger blogged it. I wonder where in the Middle East Maiperqat is!
• J.J. at In the Middle offers a draft of a long paper on the fascinating subject of Medieval British beliefs in an otherworld and of barrows as portals to such realms.
• Here's a promising news site: Medievalists.net. I wonder when their May highlights are due?
• Carl at Got Medieval has some news about the faked Jeanne d'Arc relics.
• A Corner of Tenth-Century Europe offers the latest and most titillating dirt on Carolingian royal charters.
• Here, here and here are reports from the International Medieval Conference in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• My own contribution is a pair of fieldwork communiqués (here and here) about unusual new discoveries at a Dark Ages elite site in Kaga parish, Östergötland.

Many thanks to Julie Hofmann for help with gathering material for the carnie! Dear Reader, don't forget to submit to the next Carnivalesque. Though it's gonna be two months before the next Ancient/Medieval edition appears. (I suppose that's the problem, really: by the time the next one rolls around, people will have forgotten about it.) The 28th Carnivalesque will be an Early Modern edition, opening at an as yet undisclosed location on 24 June. Submit here.