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Hittite Plague
The Hittite Plague or Hand of Nergal was an epidemic, possibly of tularemia, which occurred in the mid-to-late 14th century BC. Background The Hittite Empire stretched from Turkey to Syria. The plague was likely an outbreak of ''Francisella tularensis'' which occurred along the Arwad-Euphrates trading route in the 14th century BC. Much of the ancient Near East suffered from outbreaks; however, Egypt and Assyria initiated a quarantine along their border, and they did not experience the epidemic. Tularemia is a bacterial infection which is still a threat. It is also referred to as "rabbit fever" and it is a zoonotic disease which can easily pass from animals to humans. The most common way that it is spread is through various insects which hop between species, such as ticks. The symptoms of an infection range from skin lesions to respiratory failure. Without treatment the mortality rate is 15% of those infected. According to former microbiologist Siro Trevisanato, "Tularemia is r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tularemia
Tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium '' Francisella tularensis''. Symptoms may include fever, skin ulcers, and enlarged lymph nodes. Occasionally, a form that results in pneumonia or a throat infection may occur. The bacterium is typically spread by ticks, deer flies, or contact with infected animals. It may also be spread by drinking contaminated water or breathing in contaminated dust. It does not spread directly between people. Diagnosis is by blood tests or cultures of the infected site. Prevention includes the use of insect repellent and long pants, rapidly removing ticks, and not disturbing dead animals. Treatment is typically with the antibiotic streptomycin. Gentamicin, doxycycline, or ciprofloxacin may also be used. Between the 1970s and 2015, around 200 cases were reported in the United States a year. Males are affected more often than females. It occurs most frequently in the young and the middle aged. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bacterial Infection
Pathogenic bacteria are bacteria that can cause disease. This article focuses on the bacteria that are pathogenic to humans. Most species of bacteria are harmless and many are beneficial but others can cause infectious diseases. The number of these pathogenic species in humans is estimated to be fewer than a hundred. By contrast, several thousand species are considered part of the gut flora, with a few hundred species present in each individual human's digestive tract. The body is continually exposed to many species of bacteria, including beneficial commensals, which grow on the skin and mucous membranes, and saprophytes, which grow mainly in the soil and in decaying matter. The blood and tissue fluids contain nutrients sufficient to sustain the growth of many bacteria. The body has defence mechanisms that enable it to resist microbial invasion of its tissues and give it a natural immunity or innate resistance against many microorganisms. Pathogenic bacteria are speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amarna Letter EA 35
Amarna letter EA 35, titled ''The Hand of Nergal,'' is a moderate length clay tablet letter from the king of Alashiya (modern Cyprus) to the king (pharaoh) of Egypt (photo, high resolutio. The letter has multiple short paragraphs, with scribed, single-lines showing the paragraphing. Paragraphs I-VII are on the letter's obverse; paragraph VIII starts at the bottom edge and continues, ending at Paragraph XIII on the clay tablet's reverse. The letter is located in the British Museum, no. 29788. The clay surface shows a gloss, implying a quality of the clay preparation. Small edges/ corners of the clay tablet letter are broken, damaged, or missing. The topics of the letter concern an epidemic afflicting the country: ''The Hand of Nergal'', trade for silver and copper (copper from Alašiya), and timber. A discussion of politics, concerning island individuals, and the two countries' messengers concern the second half of the letter. The Amarna letters, about 300, numbered up to EA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simyra
Tell Kazel () is an oval-shaped tell that measures at its base, narrowing to at its top. It is located in the Safita district of the Tartus Governorate in Syria in the north of the Akkar plain on the north of the al-Abrash River approximately south of Tartus.Badre, Leila., "Tell Kazel-Simyra: A Contribution to a Relative Chronological History in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age", BASOR 343, pp. 65–95, 2006 History The tell was first surveyed in 1956 after which a lengthy discussion was opened by Maurice Dunand and Nassib Saliby identifying the site with the ancient city variously named Sumur, Simyra or Zemar (Egyptian ''Smr'' Akkadian ''Sumuru'' or Assyrian ''Simirra''). Late Bronze Age It was a major trade center and appears in the Amarna letters; Ahribta is named as its ruler. It was under the guardianship of Rib-Hadda, king of Byblos, but revolted against him and joined Abdi-Ashirta's expanding kingdom of Amurru. Pro-Egyptian factions may h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sheep
Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated sheep. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Numbering a little over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ''ewe'' ( ), an intact male as a ''ram'', occasionally a ''tup'', a castrated male as a ''wether'', and a young sheep as a ''lamb''. Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat ( lamb, hogget or mutton), and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used animal fiber, and is usually harvested by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnuwanda II
Arnuwanda II was a Hittite great king who reigned in the late 14th century BC, perhaps in c. 1322–1321 BC. His reign was a briefly interlude between those of his father Šuppiluliuma I and younger brother Muršili II. Early Life Arnuwanda was the eldest surviving son of the Hittite great king Šuppiluliuma I and his first wife, Ḫenti, herself apparently the daughter of Tudḫaliya III (sometimes called Tudḫaliya II) and granddaughter of Arnuwanda I. Crown Prince Arnuwanda was declared his father's heir apparent (''tuḫkanti'') and is attested as such in references to several events taking place during Šuppiluliuma's reign. Arnuwanda's absence from the record in the earliest events of his father's reign suggests he was too young to participate in them at the time. Together with his father, mother, and uncle Zida, Arnuwanda was mentioned in the description of the formal installation of his younger brother Telipinu as priest (and governor) of Kizzuwatna. The Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Å uppiluliuma I
Šuppiluliuma I, also Suppiluliuma () or Suppiluliumas (died c. 1322 BC) () was an ancient Hittite king (r. –1322 BC).Bryce 2005: xv, 154; Freu 2007b: 311 dates the reign to c. 1350–c. 1319 BC; Kuhrt 1995: 230 dates him within the range 1370–1322 BC. Even before assuming the throne, Šuppiluliuma distinguished himself as a military commander protecting and reclaiming Hittite territories after a period of foreign attacks. Once king, he continued this program of consolidation and expansion, both in Anatolia and in Syria, with a great deal of success. Victories over a major rival, the Upper- Mesopotamian kingdom of Mittani, led to the extension of Hittite authority over a bevy of petty kingdoms in northern Syria, the installation of the Hittite king's younger sons as local viceroys at Aleppo and Carchemish, and the rump of the Mittanian state itself became effectively a dependency of the Hittite Kingdom. Relations with Egypt vacillated between friendship and hostility, culm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Muršili II
Mursili II (also spelled Mursilis II) was a king of the Hittite Empire (New kingdom) –1295 BC (middle chronology) or 1321–1295 BC (short chronology). Early Life Mursili was the third born son of King Suppiluliuma I, one of the most powerful men to rule over the Hittite Empire, and Queen Henti. He was the younger brother of Arnuwanda II, he also had a sister and one more brother. Reign In 1321 BC Mursili II assumed the Hittite throne after the premature death of Arnuwanda II who, like their father, fell victim to the plague which ravaged the Hittites in the 1330s BC. He was greeted with contempt by Hatti's enemies and faced numerous rebellions early in his reign, the most serious of which were those initiated by the Kaskas in the mountains of Anatolia, but also by the Arzawa kingdom in southwest Asia Minor and the Hayasa-Azzi confederation in the Eastern Anatolia. This was because he was perceived to be an inexperienced ruler who only became king due to the early death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bubonic Plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well as Lymphadenopathy, swollen and painful lymph nodes occurring in the area closest to where the bacteria entered the skin. Acral necrosis, the dark discoloration of skin, is another symptom. Occasionally, swollen lymph nodes, known as "buboes", may break open. The three types of plague are the result of the route of infection: bubonic plague, septicemic plague, and pneumonic plague. Bubonic plague is mainly spread by infected fleas from small animals. It may also result from exposure to the body fluids from a dead plague-infected animal. Mammals such as rabbits, hares, and some cat species are susceptible to bubonic plague, and typically die upon contraction. In the bubonic form of plague, the bacteria enter through the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Smallpox
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date. The initial symptoms of the disease included fever and vomiting. This was followed by formation of ulcers in the mouth and a skin rash. Over a number of days, the skin rash turned into the characteristic fluid-filled blisters with a dent in the center. The bumps then scabbed over and fell off, leaving scars. The disease was transmitted from one person to another primarily through prolonged face-to-face contact with an infected person or rarely via contaminated objects. Prevention was achieved mainly through the smallpox vaccine. Once the disease had developed, certain antiviral medications could poten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of the three-age system, following the Stone Age and preceding the Iron Age. Conceived as a global era, the Bronze Age follows the Neolithic, with a transition period between the two known as the Chalcolithic. The final decades of the Bronze Age in the Mediterranean basin are often characterised as a period of widespread societal collapse known as the Late Bronze Age collapse (), although its severity and scope are debated among scholars. An ancient civilisation is deemed to be part of the Bronze Age if it either produced bronze by smelting its own copper and alloying it with tin, arsenic, or other metals, or traded other items for bronze from producing areas elsewhere. Bronze Age cultures were the first to History of writing, develop writin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
