Be sure to watch this fascinating video concerning the conservation of the books and manuscripts of St. Catherine's Monastery as well as the renovation of some of its buildings. The video features Father Justin, the librarian of the monastery, which is one of the oldest monasteries in the world. 

Below you will find a call-for-papers for the first North American Papyrology Seminar in Ann Arbor, MI. Please note that the deadline for submissions is February 27, 2015. 

Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies: An Introduction. Edited by: Alessandro Bausi (General editor), Pier Giorgio Borbone, Françoise Briquel-Chatonnet, Paola Buzi, Jost Gippert, Caroline Macé, Marilena Maniaci, Zisis Melissakis, Laura E. Parodi, Witold Witakowski.

Project editor: Eugenia Sokolinski

Printed by: Tredition, Hamburg

ISBN: 978-3-7323-1768-4 (Hardcover; €56.29)
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1770-7 (Paperback; €29.01)
ISBN: 978-3-7323-1769-1 (Ebook; €2.99)

A PDF of the entire book, or of individual chapters, may be downloaded freely here. 

Live Science has just published an interesting piece on mummy masks and the alleged "first century" papyrus of the Gospel of Mark. Craig Evans, NT scholar and evangelical Christian apologist, was consulted for the piece and Evans gives some more information about the fragment.

"When the glue was dissolved, the researchers dated the first-century gospel in part by analyzing the other documents found in the same mask."

"Evans says that the text was dated through a combination of carbon-14 dating, studying the handwriting on the fragment and studying the other documents found along with the gospel. These considerations led the researchers to conclude that the fragment was written before the year 90."

"The team originally hoped the volume would be published in 2013 or 2014, but the date had to be moved back to 2015." [Update: It has now been reported that the publication has been delayed for another two years, that is, 2017.]

I'm looking forward to seeing the publication of this papyrus fragment, which is apparently slated for this year. The Live Science piece, written by Owen Jarus, was well done. Jarus even devotes a section to the controversy around destroying mummy masks and links to this blog. All in all, we are going to have to sit back and wait for the publication, which I am confident will give us many more details.