More ancient manuscripts

There is a new Carnivalesque, a collection of historical items found in various blogs and news sources, posted at Archaeoastronomy. This one is Carnivalesque XIII and is dedicated to ancient and medieval history.

Included in this collection is my previous entry here on the Gospel of Judas. It's been interestingly paired with a post at Varnam about the oldest Buddhist manuscripts known, which have also been a subject of controversy, explored in more detail at the site for the Buddhist Channel. These manuscripts, you see, were smuggled out of Afghanistan from their former home, Bamiyan, the location of a historic early monastery. Smuggling antiquities out of their country of origin is widely disapproved, but given the destruction of Buddhist monuments at Bamiyan (above) by the former Taliban regime, which may not be out for the count yet, their sale may have saved them.