From Ancient Amarna to the Black Death of London: the Ancient History of the Plague
When we think of the Black Death or Plague we are transported to the filthy streets fourteenth century London; a city overrun with rats and where hygiene comprised washing once a year. We certainly do not associate such an epidemic with the pristine white streets of the eighteenth dynasty (1350-1334 BCE) city of Tell el Amarna. However archaeological evidence from the workmen village at Amarna suggests that the ancient city may well have been wiped out by an out-of-control pandemic similar to the one that ravished Europe, killing more than 50% of the population.
The Plague
‘The Plague’ is not an accurate term for the cause of the European Black Death which was actually the result of two diseases - the Bubonic and the Pneumonic Plague. The Bubonic plague was carried and spread by the rat flea, Xenopsylla cheopsis which live primarily on the black rat (rattus rattus), and was caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, passed from the rat flea to humans. Pneumonic plague is a variation of this, caused by inhaling the bacteria (Yersinia pestis) from an infected individual, normally via sputum, from distances up to a six feet radius.
Image of the Black Death doctor by Andreas Krautwald. Image of the Ebers Papyrus by Einsamer Schütze. Image of Akhenaten statue by Charlotte Booth. Some rights reserved.
The Xenopsylla cheopsis flea can live of a number of hosts other than the black rat, including the brown rat (rattus norvegicus), the Nile rat (rattus Nioloticus) or humans. A key point in the spread of the Bubonic plague is the immunity of some hosts to the disease. For example the brown rat is resilient to the disease and can carry the plague but not contract it, whereas the black rat is not resilient, and therefore will die as a consequence of the disease. It is the high mortality rate among non-resilient hosts which is fundamental to the spread of the disease.
The black rat resides in close proximity to people bringing the plague into the home, granaries, mills and barns. As the black rat contracts the disease, often the first sign of a plague outbreak is a quick decrease in the population of rats. The average healthy black rats carries about seven fleas, but once it dies these fleas leave the host, jumping to the next rat. This continues until there are as many as 150 fleas on one rat. When the final rat dies the fleas, now starving, look for another host. It is at this point they will turn to humans.
As the fleas can survive for up to one month away from their host, they can travel great distances in fabrics, grain or on people. In France and England in the seventeenth century, for example the disease spread up to 100 miles in only a few days. Pneumonic plague however, it passed from human to human and spreads quickly but can be contained through a cordone sanitaire preventing people from entering or leaving a village, which may have been the case in Amarna.
The Symptoms
The main symptoms of the Bubonic plague are buboes which are what gives the disease its name. These are large lumps in the areas of the lymph glands; primarily the groin or armpits. The bubo appears within the first couple of days of being infected and is painful to the touch and will eventually discharge pus. Contemporary reports from the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, who suffered from plague in 1665 CE show the sufferer also had a high fever, dehydration, and a great deal of pain, and would start vomiting blood as the internal organs shut down.
The process of internal degradation was marked by a sweet odour, and many records state sufferers commented “oh, doesn’t the air smell sweet”. Less than a week later they would be dead. In the last few hours of the sufferers' lives they would develop what were known as ‘Gods Tokens’, a series of spots primarily on the chest ranging in colour from blue to purple and orange to black, caused by damaged capillaries bleeding under the skin. It was generally believed once a patient displayed these ‘tokens’ they would not recover.
The Evidence in Egypt
Evidence shows the plague, as recorded in fourteenth and seventeenth century Europe, was in fact present at Tell el Amarna, the religious utopia built by Akhenaten for the worship of Aten (the sun disc). The city was custom built, with carefully defined boundaries and had a short lifespan of only 20-25 years. In the workman village, the houses were small, the families large, and the heat intense. Animals and food were both stored within the homestead, making it an ideal breeding ground for rats.
During excavations in Egypt the study of small animal remains has generally been minimal, but there is evidence of a black rat at Tell el Dab’a in the Delta from the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE). As this was a harbour town, the rat may have arrived by ship, and in the medical papyri, the disease is called the ‘Asiatic Illness,’ suggesting a foreign origin.
The London Medical Papyrus (c. 1350 BC) states that to cure the ‘Asiatic Illness’ one must make an incantation in the “Language of the Keftiu” (Cretans), which indicates that perhaps this was the place of origin. Origin is difficult ascertain. The disease can travel long distances in a relatively short period of time, so it could have Asiatic and Cretan origins - just not simultaneously.
Ebers Papyrus: First Record of the Plague?
The Ebers Papyrus (approx. 1534 BC) is the earliest to mention the symptoms of what we now recognise to be the plague: “If you examine a man who suffers from the said (shivering fit discussed elsewhere in the papyrus) for hours, like consuming for purulency (pus), and he is weak like a breath that passes away, then you shall say it is due to closing of an accumulation, which cannot be raised and does not trust in a weak remedy; it (the accumulation) has produced a bubo, and the pus has petrified, the disease has hit. You shall prepare him remedies to open it by means of medicines.”
This clearly makes reference to the buboes characteristic of the Bubonic plague.
The Hearst Medical Papyrus (c. 1520 BC) refers to the ‘God’s Tokens’: “When the body is blackened with black spots” which are elaborated on in the London Medical Papyrus (1350 BC); “When the body is coal black with charcoal (spots) in addition to the water (urine) as red liquid (i.e. bloody)”.
The evidence of the plague in mummies is scarce, and at present only one mummy from the Ptolemaic period shows evidence of Pneumonic plague. However, in 2006 a cemetery of poor burials was uncovered at Amarna showing hundreds of people died and were buried here in the short 20 year period of habitation. The cause of death has not been determined yet, but as the disease kills very quickly, within 28 days of contracting it, there is not enough time for marks to be left on the bones or soft tissues of the body.
Excavations of the Workman Village
An ongoing study at the Amarna workman village is investigating fossilised insect remains, showing the Nile rat may be present, and numerous fleas (animal and human) and bedbugs have been discovered here. It is clear the living conditions were crowded, dirty and infested, and the ceilings of the houses are blackened as soot was seen as a means of fumigating the home from such infestations.
Although this is not conclusive evidence of the plague in Amarna, the demise of the Egyptian royal family at the end of the reign of Akhenaten present more compelling evidence. When Akhenaten died in year 17 of his reign, he was followed of the throne by Smenkhkare who only ruled alone for a few months before succumbing to death himself.
These were the last of a long line of royal deaths; Akhenaten’s parents, Tiye and Amenhotep III in year 14 (1340 BCE) and 12 (1338 BCE) respectively, his youngest daughters Setepenre and Neferneferura disappeared from the records at this time, and Kiya and Nefertiti, two of his wives disappeared in years 12 and 13. It tells a tragic family history of people of varying ages, dying within a few years of each other. Could this be the result of an epidemic of Pneumonic or Bubonic plague?
The Post-Amarnan Spread
Further evidence has been discovered in Hattusha, the Hittite capital, dated to the post Amarna period. The Deeds of Suppiluliumas and a series of Prayers written by Suppiluliumas’ son Mursilis II. They refer to an offensive against Egypt, in retaliation for the murder of another son of Suppiluliumas, Zennanza:
“My father let his anger run away with him, he went to war against Egypt and attacked Egypt. But when they brought back to Hatti land the prisoners which they had taken, a plague broke out among the prisoners and they began to die. When they moved the prisoners to Hatti land, the prisoners carried the plague into Hatti land. From that day on people have been dying in the Hatti land”
Although the symptoms are not recorded, it is possible this was the plague which destroyed the beautiful city of Amarna. The rat fleas carrying the bubonic plague can live for over a month away from their rat hosts, so it is quite plausible that they were transported from Egypt to Turkey. The Pneumonic plague, carried by the Egyptian prisoners, could easily be transferred to the Hittite guards during the march to Hatti, bringing it into the city. The death toll at Hatti is also unknown but the evidence from Europe shows it could be catastrophic.
Conclusion
The interesting yet frightening aspect of the Bubonic plague is that it is not associated just with unhygienic living conditions, although these of course exacerbate the problem, and that it killed indiscriminately. The plague was wiped out in Europe in the eighteenth century CE but is still a reality in many parts of the world; including the USA where there are infrequent outbreaks of Bubonic plague. It is a disease that has passed the test of time, neither mutating nor developing. The symptoms of the plague in eighteenth dynasty Amarna are the same as fourteenth century Paris, seventeenth century London and twenty-first century Missouri.
The more we learn about this disease in the present, the easier it will be to identify the disease in the past, meaning in years to come we may be able to clearly identify which New Kingdom individuals died of the Black Death. With swine flu currently tapping at our heels, the more understanding we have of how pandemics spread and develop, the better.
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Comments
Facinating article! Assuming there was plague at Amarna I wonder if the topography of the site could have played a role in it as well?
I'm Alberto and i think that it would be scary to experience bubonic plague...
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