| Hittite Plague/ Hand of Nergal | |
|---|---|
 Map of the Hittite Empire in the late 14th century BC | |
| Disease | Unknown, possibly Tularemia |
| Location | Near East |
| First outbreak | Hattusa or Alashiya |
| First reported | Mid-to-Late 14th century BC |
Territories | Hittite Empire, Alashiya (Cyprus), Levant/Canaan, Anatolia, possibly Egypt |
The Hittite Plague or Hand of Nergal was an epidemic, possibly of tularemia, which occurred in the mid-to-late 14th century BC.
The Hittite Empire stretched from Turkey to Syria. [1] The plague was likely an outbreak of Francisella tularensis which occurred along the Arwad-Euphrates trading route in the 14th century BC. Much of the ancient Near East suffered from outbreaks; however, Egypt and Assyria initiated a quarantine along their border, and they did not experience the epidemic. [2]
Tularemia is a bacterial infection which is still a threat. [1] It is also referred to as "rabbit fever" and it is a zoonotic disease which can easily pass from animals to humans. The most common way that it is spread is through various insects which hop between species, such as ticks. [3] The symptoms of an infection range from skin lesions to respiratory failure. Without treatment the mortality rate is 15% of those infected. [1] According to former microbiologist Siro Trevisanato, "Tularemia is rare in many countries today, but remains a problem in some countries including Bulgaria." [1]
According to author Philip Norrie (How Disease Affected the End of the Bronze Age), there are three diseases most likely to have caused a post-Bronze Age societal collapse: smallpox, bubonic plague, and tularemia. The tularemia plague which struck the Hittites could have been spread by insects or infected dirt or plants, through open wounds, or by eating infected animals. [3]
Hittite texts from the mid-14th century BC refer to the plague causing disabilities and death. [1] Hittite King Muršili II wrote prayers seeking relief from the epidemic, which had lasted two decades and killed many of his subjects. The two kings who preceded him, Šuppiluliuma I and Šuppiluliuma's immediate heir, Arnuwanda II, had also succumbed to tularemia. [4] Muršili had ascended to the throne because he was the last surviving son of Šuppiluliuma. [5]
Muršili believed that the plague had been transmitted to the Hittites by Egyptian prisoners who had been paraded through the capital city, Hattusa. There is some evidence suggesting that the Egyptians suffered from tularemia in the years preceding 1322 BC. [4] The Hittites apparently also suspected zoonotic transmission, because they banned the use of donkeys in caravans. [1] Another theory of the plague's origin suggests that it originated with rams that the Hittites had taken as spoils of war, along with other animals, after the Hittites raided Simyra. Soon after the animals were brought into Hittite villages, the tularemia outbreak began. [1]
The plague is mentioned in Amarna letter EA 35, a letter written in Akkadian from the ruler of Alashiya (Cyprus) to the Pharaoh of Egypt during the Amarna Period. [6] It dates from between 1350 and 1325 BC. In it, the plague is specially named as The Hand of Nergal.
The disease was intentionally brought to western Anatolia in what is described as the "first known record of biological warfare". [2] Shortly after the Hittites experienced the outbreak of disease, the Arzawans from western Anatolia believed the Hittites were weakened and attacked them. The Arzawans claimed that rams suddenly appeared (1320 and 1318 BC) and the Arzawans brought them into their villages. It is thought that the Hittites had sent rams diseased with tularemia to infect their enemies. The Arzawans became so weakened by the plague that they failed in their attempt to conquer the Hittites. [1] [3]
The Hittites were an Anatolian Indo-European people who formed one of the first major civilizations of Bronze Age West Asia. Possibly originating from beyond the Black Sea, they settled in modern day Turkey in the early 2nd millennium BC. The Hittites formed a series of polities in north-central Anatolia, including the kingdom of Kussara, the Kanesh or Nesha kingdom, and an empire centered on Hattusa. Known in modern times as the Hittite Empire, it reached its peak during the mid-14th century BC under Šuppiluliuma I, when it encompassed most of Anatolia and parts of the northern Levant and Upper Mesopotamia, bordering the rival empires of the Hurri-Mitanni and Assyrians.
Mitanni, earlier called Ḫabigalbat in old Babylonian texts, c. 1600 BC; Hanigalbat or Hani-Rabbat in Assyrian records, or Naharin in Egyptian texts, was a Hurrian-speaking state in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia with Indo-Aryan linguistic and political influences. Since no histories, royal annals or chronicles have yet been found in its excavated sites, knowledge about Mitanni is sparse compared to the other powers in the area, and dependent on what its neighbours commented in their texts.
Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Francisella tularensis. Symptoms may include fever, skin ulcers, and enlarged lymph nodes. Occasionally, a form that results in pneumonia or a throat infection may occur.
Arzawa was a region and political entity in Western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. In Hittite texts, the term is used to refer both to a particular kingdom and to a loose confederation of states. The chief Arzawan state, whose capital was at Apasa, is often referred to as Arzawa Minor or Arzawa Proper, while the other Arzawa lands included Mira, Hapalla, Wilusa, and the Seha River Land.
Šuppiluliuma I, also Suppiluliuma or Suppiluliumas was an ancient Hittite king.
Šuppiluliuma II, the son of Tudḫaliya IV, was the last certain great king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite Empire, contemporary with Tukulti-Ninurta I of the Middle Assyrian Empire. His reign began around 1207 BC and ended at an unknown later date.
Mursili II was a king of the Hittite Empire c. 1330–1295 BC or 1321–1295 BC.
Arnuwanda II was a Hittite great king who reigned in the late 14th century BC, perhaps in c. 1322–1321 BC. His reign was a briefly interlude between those of his father Šuppiluliuma I and younger brother Muršili II.
Alashiya, also spelled Alasiya, also known as the Kingdom of Alashiya, was a state which existed in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages, and was situated somewhere in the Eastern Mediterranean. It was a major source of goods, especially copper, for ancient Egypt and other states in the Ancient Near East. It is referred to in a number of the surviving texts and is now thought to be the ancient name of Cyprus, or an area of Cyprus. This was confirmed by the scientific analysis performed in Tel Aviv University of the clay tablets which were sent from Alashiya to other rulers.
The Amarna Period was an era of Egyptian history during the later half of the Eighteenth Dynasty when the royal residence of the pharaoh and his queen shifted from the old capital of Thebes (Waset) to Akhetaten in what is now modern Amarna. This move occurred during the reign of Amenhotep IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten in order to reflect the dramatic change of Egypt's polytheistic religion into one where the sun disc Aten was worshipped over all other gods. Toward the end of a Akhenaten's reign, he had a mysterious co-regent, Smenkhkare, about which very little is known; similarly, Neferneferuaten, a female ruler also exercised influence.
Hayasa-Azzi or Azzi-Hayasa was a Late Bronze Age confederation in the Armenian Highlands and/or Pontic region of Asia Minor. The Hayasa-Azzi confederation was in conflict with the Hittite Empire in the 14th century BC, leading up to the collapse of Hatti around 1190 BC. It has long been thought that Hayasa-Azzi may have played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of Armenians.
Zannanza was a Hittite prince, son of Suppiluliuma I, king of the Hittites. He is best known for almost becoming the Pharaoh of Egypt, and because his death caused a diplomatic incident between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, resulting in warfare.
Tudḫaliya III, with the additional Hurrian name Tašmi-Šarri, was a Hittite great king in Anatolia during the Late Bronze in the 14th century BC, in c. 1380–1350 BC. He was the son and successor of Arnuwanda I and the predecessor, father-in-law, and adoptive father of Šuppiluliuma I.
The Kaska were a loosely affiliated Bronze Age non-Indo-European tribal people, who spoke the unclassified Kaskian language and lived in mountainous East Pontic Anatolia, known from Hittite sources. They lived in the mountainous region between the core Hittite region in eastern Anatolia and the Black Sea, and are cited as the reason that the later Hittite Empire never extended northward to that area. They are sometimes identified with the Caucones known from Greek records.
The possible solar eclipse mentioned in a text dating to the reign of Muršili II could be of great importance for the absolute chronology of the Hittite Empire within the chronology of the ancient Near East. The text records that in the tenth year of Mursili's reign, "the Sun gave a sign", just as the king was about to launch a campaign against the Kingdom of Hayasa-Azzi in north-eastern Anatolia.
Nuhašše, was a region in northwestern Syria that flourished in the 2nd millennium BC. It was east of the Orontes River bordering Aleppo (northwest) and Qatna (south). It was a petty kingdom or federacy of principalities probably under a high king. Tell Khan Sheykhun has tenatively been identifed as kurnu-ḫa-šeki.
Dakhamunzu is the name of an Egyptian queen known from the Hittite annals The Deeds of Suppiluliuma, which were composed by Suppiluliuma I's son Mursili II. The identity of this queen has not yet been established with any degree of certainty and Dakhamunzu has variously been identified as either Nefertiti, Meritaten or Ankhesenamen. The identification of this queen is of importance both for Egyptian chronology and for the reconstruction of events during the late Eighteenth Dynasty.
Mira, in the Late Bronze Age, was one of the semi-autonomous vassal state kingdoms that emerged in western Anatolia following the defeat and partition of the larger kingdom of Arzawa by the victorious Suppiluliuma I of the Hittite Empire. A significantly smaller Arzawa continued, centered on Apasa (Ephesus), with Mira to the east.
Hapalla, also written as Haballa, was a kingdom in central-western Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age. As one of the Arzawa states, it was a sometime vassal and sometime enemy of the Hittite Empire.
The Seha River Land was a kingdom in Western Anatolia in the Late Bronze Age known from Hittite texts. Part of Arzawa, it was located north of Mira and south of Wilusa, and at one point controlled the island of Lazpa.