Carnivalesque LXVII!

I'm a little sorry that I volunteered to host Carnivalesque, because it's shown me how much really interesting stuff there is out there that I haven't read. As if I weren't already feeling guilty about that with books.

In any case, I got about twice as many suggestions as I could use – an embarrassment of riches! – but I saw a theme begin to emerge, and decided to run with it. So now I present to you:

Carnivalesque LXVII:
When the Ancient/Medieval and the Modern Collide,
and How to Survive the Aftermath.
Starring Indiana Jones, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama!

• First, the post that started it all: I innocently mentioned in the comments thread that I'd like to nominate it for the next Carnivalesque, and Another Damned Medievalist leapt in to ask, "Do you want to host?" Me and my big mouth. But read the post, and you'll see why. Matthew Gabriele's frustrating encounter with an amateur historian in the editorial pages of a local newspaper is not just a meditation on the Crusades and their meaning for the modern world. It's a post that raises questions about the place of the would-be public intellectual. Do our degrees, once a sign of expertise, now mean that we're the last people the public should trust to tell them about history?

• Contrawise, Michael Drout at Wormtalk and Slugspeak provides a convincing argument that medievalists and their methods perhaps shouldn't be let loose on the present.

• Isis at Medieval Silkwork puts together a modern recreation a bit of medieval technology based on manuscript illuminations – but not another freakin' trebuchet, thankyouverymuch.

• Or, going in the opposite direction: Two posts on modern technology in the service of the history of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, with cool results.

• More archaeology… sort of. Well, not really. But hey: Indiana Jones!

• It's hard to pick a post on the medieval/modern collision from Got Medieval?; probably 60% of Carl's posts would fit with this theme. So I'll just link to a nice one clearing up some misconceptions about the links between Chaucer and the modern celebration of Valentine's Day, and urge you to browse through the rest of his excellent entries at your leisure.

• Jeff Sypeck at Quid Plura concocts a beverage recipe out of a rhizome that saw its peak of popularity in the West during the Middle Ages, then sadly disappeared from our culinary repertoire. Click here to see how it turns out.

• The Dalai Lama becomes an honorary Roman, but seriously old-school. Tell me he doesn't look delighted.

And some stuff that didn't fit in, but that I just had to include:

• Some depressing stuff on the state of the supply-and-demand for medieval history Ph.D.s in the U.K.

• An interesting post on theory.

• And, making her second appearance on this edition of Carnivalesque, Judith Weingarten muses on the meaning of neolithic "venus figures" -- a post that I find interesting, since I had to lecture on this very topic only a couple of weeks ago.

And that's it! Make sure to check in at the Carnivalesque page to see who'll be hosting the next festivities, and don't forget to stop by here again on Monday the 2nd for the first meeting of our online roundtable on Judith Bennett's History Matters!