Contagion and Recovery in the Ancient Hittite Empire
The Hittites recognized that disease was transmitted by contagion from one person to another. In the late 14th century BCE, an epidemic disease afflicted the kingdom of Hatti, located in central Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Mursili II, King of Hatti, pleaded with the gods to make the plague stop, in a series of prayers that were written down[…]