An account of diseases in the near east during the Bronze age – An historical view

The aim of this thesis is to document the role of disease in the demise of the Hittite Empire and the end of the Bronze Age in the Near East c1200 BCE. There have been many theories about the possible cause or causes for the end of the Bronze Age from changes in warfare and lack of tin, to a general systems collapse and infighting within royal families. Only a few people have proposed infectious disease as a possible cause: they are Tom Slattery, Eric Watson-Williams and Lars Walloe. Using mainly an historiographical approach, this thesis will propose that up to ten different infectious diseases, in the form of a major or several different epidemics, were possible major causes or co-factors in the end of the Hittite Empire and Bronze Age. These diseases include five that are so lethal that they have been used as biological warfare agents, namely smallpox, bubonic plague, tularemia, shigella dysentery and anthrax. The other five diseases are poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, malaria, measles and influenza. In addition, a number of medical historians have claimed that the Hittite Empire ended with the 1322 BCE epidemic; this thesis will argue that it did not.This thesis will examine fifteen other currently proposed causes for the end of the Near Eastern Bronze Age and Hittite Empire, besides disease, and show that a possible multi-factorial cascade of causes culminated in an infectious disease epidemic or series of epidemics delivering the final blow. This cascade starts with volcanic and/or comet activity causing a prolonged drought in the Near East, which led to famine. This famine made people more prone to whatever infectious disease(s) were prevalent. When enough people died then their country or empire was not able to feed and administer itself, or operate and control its trade routes (resulting in reduced trade), let alone finally defend itself; hence it became vulnerable and succumbed to invasion. This thesis will aim to document these issues in greater detail and show that any history written which does not consider the consequences of disease is incomplete and thus flawed