819▶ pandemics and epidemics
introduction
Archaeologists and historians of medicine face diffi culties in
studying ancient pandemics and epidemics. (Th e words pan-
demic and epidemic diff er in scope. An epidemic occurs when
an illness occurs suddenly and spreads throughout a com-
munity, aff ecting many people; a pandemic spreads through
a much wider geographical region.) Th e chief diffi culty is that
diseases that spread rapidly and strike down large numbers of
people aff ect various tissues and organs and the blood, which
rapidly decay and disappear, leaving behind little evidence of
the diseases. Further, in prehistoric times no one produced
written records of disease. Even in historical times contem-
porary written accounts were oft en inaccurate, for ancient
observers may not have even known which disease was rav-
aging their communities.
Th us, historians oft en have to ma ke inferences on t he basis
of whatever records exist, along with physical evidence, such
as a large number of burials during a short period of time. But
historians oft en disagree. For example, one of the most famous
plagues in history, the plague of Athens, killed the Athenian
statesman Pericles during the Peloponnesian Wars of the fi ft h
century b.c.e. Some historians believe that the disease was bu-
bonic plague, but others disagree. Similarly, in 700 b.c.e. the
Assyrian army ended a siege of Jerusalem. Some historians be-
lieve that the cause was a cholera outbreak, but others think
that the Assyrians were paid off. Th ese examples show that
studying ancient plagues can be fraught with uncertainty.
Th e diseases that affl icted ancient civilizations were oft en
the same ones that affl icted communities in later eras. Small-
pox, malaria, typhoid, typhus, cholera, bubonic plague, and
perhaps polio were common epidemic illnesses. Some were
more obscure, such as schistosomiasis, a disease caused by
blood parasites. In the absence of eff ective treatments, these
diseases frequently were fata l. Worse, most were highly com-
municable, meaning that they could rapidly spread from one
person to another, decimating entire communities. Th ese
diseases took hold principally because ancient people did not
know that the source of disease was poor hygiene. Poor hy-
giene could be compounded during times of social upheaval
and war, when people packed into towns and cities for pro-
tection. Similarly, famine could weaken a population, leav-
ing people with little strength to survive a disease.
Ancient people were not always against epidemics. Al-
though inoculations against disease are thought of as a rela-
tively modern development, ancient peoples observed that
they could inoculate themselves against some diseases, such
as smallpox, by giving themselves a slight case of the disease.
Evidence suggests that people fought smallpox in this way
as early as the second or third century of the Common Era.
Smallpox was such a scourge in ancient China that the Chi-
nese had a goddess of smallpox.
Trade and travel increased the chances that epidemics
would turn into pandemics. Th e fl eas on rats, for example,
carried bubonic plague, the so-called Black Death of medi-
eval times. But evidence indicates that outbreaks of the disease
occurred much earlier, before the start of the Common Era.
Rats were common stowaways on ships that transported goods
around the known world, carrying disease and death with
them. Aft er arriving at a port, the rats or an ill crewman could
easily infect local people who had no immunity to the disease.