Two mentions of things to do with the Mandaeans in the blogosphere recently – one exciting, one disappointing.
First, today Jim Davila mentioned the Aramaic DNA project, which is seeking to collect DNA data from Aramaic speakers. I had heard about the project from Paul Givargidze, and was and remain excited about the fact that Mandaeans can and are encouraged to participate. (See my article on the Miriai story and Mandaean origins, forthcoming in ARAM Periodical and already available online, for my perspective on why DNA testing may not tell us everything we’d like to know about the historical origins of the Mandaeans).
The disappointing one was the mention on the blog Access to Mideast and Islamic Resources of digitized open access manuscripts at the Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum (MDZ). The site has a lot that is of interest, but among the manuscripts there is one listed as Codex Mandaicus which apparently no one thought it worth digitizing.
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