Not much is known about the Dead Sea Scrolls — the oldest known manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible — but artificial intelligence revealed that one of them was likely written by two people. A three-line gap, change in material, and different handwriting (detected by the algorithm) point to the possibility of a change in scribe during the writing of the scroll “1QIsaa”. This study is said to reinforce that “the shift to the digital offers a new opening for the study of sacred texts”. Read full article here
Research
Researcher uses AI to make texts that are thousands of years old readable
The Gilgamesh Epic, the oldest work of world literature, has been brought back to life by LMU researchers in the Electronic Babylonian Literature project. Using their new Fragmentarium tool, they have discovered hundreds of manuscripts, including the most recent tablet of the Gilgamesh Epic which dates from 130 BC – thousands of years after the earliest known version. This shows how highly valued the Epic was, even at a late period. With the public release of the Fragmentarium, anyone can now explore the thousands of cuneiform fragments and explore the ancient Babylonian literature. Read full article here
Merv
March 12, 2023
