Migraines might have made people see angels. Head pain and the heavens were strangely linked with each other; divine revelations were sometimes accompanied by headaches, which could be explained by the phenomenon of scintillating scotomata — the colorful, serrated, C-shaped hallucinations brought about by a migraine. The illustrations of Hildegard of Bingen’s divine visions, in particular, were quite similar to descriptions of what patients had seen during a migraine attack.
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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
