The View From Kalamazoo

Yo! Program is up. Off to printer next week. I need a nap.

Today is brought to you by the letter D for dementia and the number 640, which is the total numbered sessions this year. Between Program layout and the elderly insanity and related administrativa, paperwork, health aides and mounting bills I’ve been out of energy, out of “free” time, and out of my mind.

I have been quitely collecting links even though I’ve not had time for bloggy things, otherwise. I’ll include a couple of interesting US archaeological bits, too: Archaeologists Find ‘Unusual’ Indian Burial Site In Downtown Miami

Evidence suggests slavery at African burial ground

Tomb of ancient coin collector unearthed

Archeologists Unearth 1,300 Skeletons

Hair-gelled Celt may have been sacrificed (couldn’t have smelled worse than some of the stuff in the 80s!)

Medieval Irish warlord boasts three million descendants Talk about being top of your game!

Archaeological dig unearths ‘exciting’ medieval treasure

Music professor unravels mysteries of early music

Archaeologists find tomb under Roman Forum

Experts prepare excavation on Greek island: British and Greek archaeologists are preparing a major excavation on a tiny Greek island to try to explain why it produced history’s largest collection of Cycladic flat-faced marble figurines.

Medieval And Modern Thought Text Digitization Project; Stanford University

This just came through a listserv I read, so I’m keepting the information moving:

A Venue for Historical Scholarship

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History is published annually by AMS Press (New York) under the auspices of the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (ACMRS). Beginning with Volume 4, 3rd series (2006), the editors are Roger Dahood and Peter E. Medine.

We seek submissions on all aspects of medieval and early modern history and invite interpretive essays, historiographical essays, translations, commentaries on texts, and research notes. Submissions are reviewed year-round. Submissions should follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed. (2003) but omit names of book publishers from citations.

Pictures should be clear photocopies. When an article is accepted authors will be expected to provide 5 x 7 or 8.5 x 11 black-and-white glossy photographs and all necessary permissions. Digital images in .tif or .eps format are acceptable in place of glossy photographs.

Authors should submit two copies of their essays: one in an .rtf file to [email protected], the other on paper to

Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Arizona State University P.O. Box 874402 Tempe, AZ 857287-4402

http://www.asu.edu/clas/acmrs

Beowulf and Grendel movie trailer

The irregular regular update:

• Still making no headway on paper.
• Want to set fire to my cubicle.
• Ceramics classes back in session – this term I’m doing what amounts to an independent study – with a female instructor this time. I’m learning how to center the clay with a different technique (up to now I’ve been using what tall male instructors with large hands and upper-body strength taught) and while it’s an odd adjustment (I am, effectively, shifting my weight and handedness, if that description makes sense), and will take a lot of getting used to, I think it’ll be helpful. Centering more than 2 lbs of clay has been really hard for me the way I had been centering before. I’m focusing on size (height, particularly), not how many different types of projects I can get through in one term. Should be good, although I have a sore wrist this morning – new muscles to strengthen.
• Yes, I know I owe photos of bowls and mugs and crap. I’m being nagged, never fear.
• I haven’t read much of many Doods, kept up with much of anything news-wise to speak of. Break was a black hole of getting less painting done than I wanted and dealing with unspeakably vile (seriously. a story so disgusting that you really, really don’t want to know.) Mother Soprano antics.
• Congress has eaten my brain. But you knew that.
• Fun with OEDILF. C’mon – all the cool kids are doin’ it!
• I have been reminded that I have been a very inattentive blogger lately. I will try harder to have more to say than just sharing links..I’ve just had little time (and believe me, self-censoring is nothing to chide me for, it’s for your benefit, after all!)

But, til then, there are always gems and tidbits:

In connection with a BBC TV series on words, Balderdash and Piffle (six-part series looking at words and the stories behind them), Oxford University Press is giving online access to the OED throughout the series, free of charge: Until 13 February, you can look up any words beginning with this week’s letter, or with previous letters of the week; and, for 48 hours after each programme, you can look up any word, beginning with any letter, in the whole of the OED. (From, roughly, 10 pm GMT on Mondays – 10 pm GMT on Wednesdays, or for those uninterested in doing math in their heads, 5:00PM Monday – 5:00PM Wednesday for those on Eastern Standard)

Ancient ship salvage: CHINESE scientists are about to embark on a complex operation to salvage a merchant ship which sank more than 800 years ago while plying the so-called Marine Silk Road.

Mole family uncovers Roman villa : A group of busy moles has been credited with helping archaeologists find a Roman villa in Gloucestershire.

..that I’ve recently had a nightmare about being at Congress and, before I am scheduled to give a paper (but after the session on blogging!), I make myself puke so I dont have to admit that I hadn’t quite finished the thing.

Guess I should really get started on this paper (let the translating commence). Suddenly painting my bedroom ceiling looks so very interesting and attractive…

I should take a trip so I can write it on the plane like every else…;)

My inner slacker needs to be beaten and left to die in the elements.

I so wish I had teachers like these in high school! Fantastic work, gentlemen, fantastic!

Yes, I’m behind. Shocking, I know.

Medieval tiles found at Kazakhstan site.

1310 hall Headstone Manor again in state of renovation and preservation (I smell a future episode of Most Haunted, don’t you?)

Medieval sewerage unearthed in Brno

Priest’s hunch finally uncovers Porto’s hidden holy scrolls

Medieval archive could be history

Reconstructed Stone-Age circle in Germany catches sun’s rays

Bio-archaeologists pinpoint oldest Northern European human activity

Here are some source-URLs I’ve been meaning to post (e-texts in the Bibliotheca Augustana :

Malleus

De crimine magiae

And from the Gutenberg project:

A Treatise of Witchcraft, by Alexander Roberts (1616)

And some (non-IMA and Labyrinth, since most already know to look in those vast sites) Iberian source-sites of interest I snatched off a listserv posting (and now I can’t find the message, so apologies to whomever I’m not thanking properly):

Textos Lemir

LIBRO – The Library of Iberian Resources Online (secondary sources)

Textos de Literatura Galega Medieval

Documentos para el estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia Medieval

Textos en línea – Hispanomedievalismo

Digital documents contributed by AARHMS members

More to slog through and post, so stay tooned. I am a URL packrat, I swear. Happy new year to all, and thank goodness school starts again soon! 🙂