AlunSalt

Carnivalesque 45 is being hosted by the Cranky Professor. This month it’s ancient and medieval history.

‘Mammoth Screen’s Damien Timmer and Michele Buck said: “We were trying to do something very bold and original with BoneKickers, and it averaged 4.9 million and a 21% share, which makes it one of the best rating new drama series of the year.’

Now if they’d aimed it at comedy it wuld have been so much better.

It’s an interdisciplinary conference, which always makes me wonder where the common ground is. I’ll have a closer look at this.

Jim Al-Khalili on Richard Dawkins contribution to the defence of science.

It might seem odd given how Islam has spread through the Middle East, but the earliest monasteries were in the east. This monastery is 1400 years old and now hopefully some of the damage of recent years will be reversed.

A 17th-showing engraving showing what was long thought to be early contact between Europeans and original inhabitants of New England actually depicts a scene in Newfoundland, an archeologist says. You’ll recongise the engraving when you see it. Probably.

From this we learn that Thailand is a wonderful place because they don’t seem to have a word for ’scamster’. Businessman seems unnecessarily polite, even if it’s not a hoax.

Interesting comments on what palaeopathology can tell us about the lives of ancient Rome’s inhabitants, and what it might tell the future about life in 21st century Congo.

The cradle of humanity and the savannahs, east Africa sounds like a fantastic holiday destination. Tanzania also has some amazing Stone Towns as I recall.

K. Kris Hirst has news of free books on Mediterranean monk seas in the ancient and post-classical Mediterranean. That’s monk seals as in “Arf! Arf!” seals, rather than seals belonging to monks.

You’ve got to admire the people behind Internet Archaeology. They’ve just been awarded $250k to develop online publication further. Hopefully it’s going to make the site even more accessible.

Penn Museum is trying to put a gloss on the loss of 18 positions and the disbanding of the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology. Still the boss makes it clear, these are changes brought on by the financial downturn.

Sebastian Heath with an important quote about why getting information out is important.

There’s good money to be made from looting or faking antiquities. Jim West patiently explains why this would be a bad idea.