Th e next epistolary archive containing references to epi-
demics is from Amarna in Eg y pt, though the letters were sent
to Egypt from Mesopotamia and the Levant and report on
events in those regions. One writer asks whether a disease af-
fecting donkeys, which prevents them from walking, also af-
fects people. Armies and cities were oft en attacked by plague
during times of war, as exemplifi ed by an Amarna letter sent
from Megiddo in Palestine referring to a plague in the city as
a result of its being under siege.
In later periods such contemporary reports of epidem-
ics are rare. One Babylonian chronicle refers to an epidemic
in Assyria during the reign of Merodach-baladan II (ca. 715
b.c.e.), but otherwise historical sources from the fi rst millen-
nium b.c.e. reveal very little about epidemics. One possible
reason for this lack of information is that there was no ancient
bureaucratic structure dedicated to dealing with public health,
and no offi cials were permanently assigned to this task. Illness
was treated on an ad hoc basis whenever it occurred.
Th e usual word for plague in the Akkadian language
widely used in ancient Mesopotamia, mutanu, which literally
means “deaths,” occurs mainly in contexts of omens and div-
ination. Plague was oft en predicted based on examinations
of the livers of sacrifi cial sheep or on omens drawn from the
movements of stars and planets, but such reports provide few
clues to the nature of epidemics or pandemics in the region.
Th e information is usually general, such as “Th ere will be
constant epidemics in the land” or “An epidemic will occur
in a city” or “Th ere will be an epidemic every day.”
One clue to the nature of such epidemics, however, oc-
curs in lists mentioning specifi c diseases that will aff ect the
land following particular unfavorable omens. Babylonian
planetary omens taken from sightings of Jupiter, for instance,
predict plague in the land but also foretell that a type of joint
disease, known as rapadu, will “seize” the land. Although we
cannot diagnose this specifi c disease with any accuracy, the
omen occurs with other health-related predictions, such as
that a cattle epidemic will take place or that “pregnant women
will die with the child in their womb.” Such phenomena,
of course, were probably unrelated to each other, but these
omens were intended to refer to widespread conditions aff ect-
ing the entire country, not to individual cases of affl iction.
Another unfavorable planetary omen, associated with sight-
ings of Venus, warns that dogs will become rabid, biting men,
cattle, sheep, and donkeys, and that whatever is bitten will
not recover. It is likely that many diseases besides rabies were
thought to be caused by dog bites. As we learn more about
the nature of the diseases mentioned in omens such as these,
we will have a better chance of identifying diseases that were
considered epidemics as well as illnesses attacking individual
patients.
Diseases and pestilence were oft en considered to be the
work of Nergal, the Babylonian god of pestilence and cattle
disease, who was associated with the planet Mars. Diseases
were considered to originate from the “evil dew of the gods”
or were associated with divine spittle or even divine semen
raining down from heaven. Th ese are all religious metaphors
for the cosmic origins of disease, which was thought to have
been created when the rest of creation took place; disease was
oft en regarded as the handiwork of demons emanating from
the netherworld. Th e technical literature of diagnosis and
medicine oft en refers to diseases as the “hand of a god,” with
the god or demon mentioned by name, but many of these la-
bels eventually came to serve as proper names of particular
diseases, without much theological importance.ASIA AND THE PACIFIC
BY KIRK H. BEETZ
Much is mysterious about the nature and frequency of epi-
demics in ancient Asia and the Pacifi c. In general, anthropol-
ogists believe that epidemics were rare or nonexistent among
many peoples of the Pacifi c before the coming of Europeans,
whose diseases killed numerous Australians and Pacifi c is-
landers. During ancient times there were migrations from the
Asian mainland to Japan, the Philippines, New Guinea, and
some of the islands of Indonesia, and the migrants brought
their diseases—and their developed immunities—with them,
which may explain why peoples of these places did not suf-
fer from diseases later imported from Europe as severely as
others did. Th e most prevalent ancient scourge among these
islands was leprosy. Another that was common among the
Indonesian islands was malaria.
Malaria, caused by a single-celled parasitic organism
transmitted to humans by one particular type of mosquito,
occurred throughout southern Asia. Th e disease—but not its
cause—was well known to ancient Asian writers. Malaria was
responsible for much suff ering and countless deaths among
both dense and sparse populations wherever pools of quiet
water abounded during warm weather—conditions in which
the disease-bearing mosquitoes bred prolifi cally. Ancient
Indian physicians, in particular, tried to fi nd treatments for
malaria but in the end could do little more than attempt to
reduce the fever it entailed.
In China an epidemic was taken as a sign that a ruler had
lost the mandate of heaven and could be lawfully deposed.
Th us it is not surprising that government offi cials were reluc-
tant to record epidemics. Surviving Chinese medical writings
from the Han Dynasty (202 b.c.e.–220 c.e.) indicate that epi-
demics occurred in various parts of the empire so frequently
that they could be discussed in broad general statements
rather than in descriptions of specifi c outbreaks.
Infl uenza was a common disease among pigs and ducks
in Asia, and it mutated frequently into forms that could be
transmitted to human beings. Archaeologists suspect that in-
fl uenza began in China because early in Chinese culture pigs
became an important part of everyday life. Although a new
strain of infl uenza might begin in a rural area, it was easily
carried by pigs or infected humans into towns and cities,
where it took on epidemic proportions. Like modern strains of
infl uenza, those of ancient China probably varied in severity,pandemics and epidemics: Asia and the Pacific 823