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June 22, 2010
Carnivalesque 63
Carnivalesque 63 - an Ancient and Medieval Version!
Do cities that are just NOT THERE any more matter? You bet they do! But how do we show people what was there if there's no there there any more? Go look at what can be done with Antioch on the Orontes.
How do you get extant but really fragile manuscripts out of the library where more than one scholar at a time can use them? Here are some really interesting digitalization examples.
And how do you get the DNA out of a manuscript folio to figure out things about - well, about everything, starting with the sheep herd the page was made from. Well, first you have to convince a librarian that a set of 40-micron diameter holes in the edge of a manuscript is acceptable. Then you have to use Michael Drout's new machine - prototype now available!
Bit players in the grand play of the Fall of the Roman Empire and the eventual emergence of the modern western European nations? Not so fast, buddy! Go read about the Burgundian Civil War and think harder about what makes people(s) central to the story.
Not a bit player at all - the power behind the throne - a new life of the Empress Theodora.
Periodization is always a question. In question? Questionable? But much like bit players and great powers, definition is important, if impossible. Magistra et Mater asks "How late should the late antique go?"
So you didn't make it to Kalamazoo this year? Jonathan Jarrett covered a BUNCH of sessions incredibly thoroughly - here, here, here, and here He's not quite Prof. Dr. Boethius P. von Korncrake, but hey - most of us aren't.
The most important Kalamazoo news? The Chaucer Blogger steps forward!
And finally, what I think must be the most-forwarded ancient or medieval story of the year -- the lurid cemetary of the Gladiators at York. Men bitten by Tigers! Differential development of right arms! At least three of my students in Greek Art & Architecture this semester forwarded this to me - and it was on every list serve I'm on, too. And then ADM sent it as a suggestion, too - so clearly Gladiators are In the News!
Happy reading!
Posted by CrankyProfessor at June 22, 2010 9:03 AM
Comments
Thanks for signalling my Antioch post. By good luck,I just arrived in the city today (now Antakya, Turkey) and will take my first walk down by the Orontes in a few minutes. The walk is real but what I'll be seeing in my mind's eye is virtual.
Judith (Zenobia: Empress of the East)
Posted by: Judith Weingarten 
at June 22, 2010 10:33 AM
I think that being compared unfavourably to von Corncrake (whose work I was not previously aware of, what with it all being out of print of course) is probably a compliment. If not, the links certainly are; thankyou very much!
Posted by: Jonathan Jarrett at June 24, 2010 9:51 AM