The Center for Medieval Studies at the U of MN has a weekly newsletter and trivia contest (they also have some great weekly lectures). Every week I try and find the answer to the trivia contest. Some weeks I answer it and some I do not, as sometimes they ask really obscure questions. So when I do figure it out, I occasionally email in the answer to try and win the prize. Well, a few weeks ago I won!!! I was very excited as you can imagine. I had already hiked down to their offices a few weeks ago to claim my prize, but they were not open. So today I made the trek down to the offices (after calling earlier in the day to make sure they would be open) and got my prize…a coffee cup!
In case you were wondering what the question was, here it is: Since 1996, over 60 newly discovered gravestones, shaped from granite into oblong cylinders and containing Hebrew and Aramaic inscriptions, are the first known physical evidence of a 13th century Jewish community in what region of the world?
The answer was Armenia, specifically Eghegis, a small village in the southeastern Siwniq region.
