Abstract:

Plague has been one of the deadliest epidemics in history, which has been seen in many societies from past to present. The plague disease seen in civilizations such as Sumer, Assyria and Egypt in the ancient age had a great impact on the Hittite society. The fact that information about the epidemic was included in many of the Hittite written sources proved the effect of the disease on society. This disease, which emerged as a major epidemic during the reign of the Hittite King Şuppiluliuma I and caused mass deaths, was called the "plague". It is not known whether the plague, which is often mentioned in Hittite sources, is the same disease as the plague known today. But the possibility that the plague was brought to the country by Egyptian prisoners of war is considered strong. Murshili II's plague prayers about the epidemic; It is the most important source that gives information about the disease and its effects on society. In these prayers, Murshili II speaks to the gods and asks for the disease to be removed from the country. The Hittites tried to prevent epidemics with religious rituals, not with a medical treatment, because they saw epidemics as God's punishment of people and based them on religious reasons. The Hittite belief in reconciling epidemic diseases with religion caused the diseases to spread faster among the people and caused the epidemic to be long-lasting. As a matter of fact, the plague epidemic, which reached a significant spread speed during the Murshili II period, had its effect in the country for a long period of twenty years. After the II Murshili period, there was no information about the epidemic in the sources. This suggests that the disease left the country with the reign of Murshili II.

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