The other two answers rely on Trevisanato (2007) for the claim that the Hittites engaged in biological warfare against the Arzawans around 1320 BCE. But, in my opinion, Trevisanato’s conclusions are speculations that go well beyond the evidence he presents, and so we need to treat them with skepticism. Note that Trevisanato’s paper was published in Medical Hypotheses, which is a journal giving “novel, radical new ideas and speculations in medicine open-minded consideration”, and not one in which papers are peer-reviewed by historians.
This is the section in which Trevisanato sets out the biological warfare hypothesis:
The Neshite†–Arzawan conflict raises the question of the pathogen being intentionally used as a weapon. In spite of the plague and changes of rulers, Neshites blocked the Arzawan attack, then
routed the opponents, and did so in less than two years. Did Neshites have a secret weapon? The Neshite king wished the plague on the Arzawans [2]. Did he actively contribute to make his wish come true? Well, during the Bronze Age blitzkrieg, Arzawans and allies were infected. Additionally, Neshites were directly blamed for the epidemic. In fact, Neshite rituals describe how a ram and a woman attending the animal were sent on the road, spreading the disease along the way [15]. The practice was confirmed by Arzawans who reacted to the plague caused by enemy by sending their own ram on the road in the direction of the enemy troops, and asking the gods to direct their attention to the Neshite land [2]. Ovines are known carriers of tularemia [10]. As a result, it is safe to state that the warring parties engaged in mutual use of contaminated animals with the purpose of infecting the opponent. Such use is not attested in prior literature, making the 1320–1318 BC Anatolian war the first known record of biological warfare.
Siro Igino Trevisanato (2007). ‘The “Hittite plague”, an epidemic of tularemia and the first record of biological warfare’. Medical Hypotheses 69, pages 1373–1374.
† By “Neshite” Trevisanato means “Hittite”. This name is in some sense more accurate: their own ethnonym seems to have been based on their city Nesha, not their capital Hattusa. But since his sources use “Hittite” you have to wonder why he chose to use the nonstandard term instead.
Once we’ve discounted rhetoric like “it is safe to state”, we can see the biological warfare claim rests on references [2] and [15]. Let’s see what they say.
First claim, “The Neshite king wished the plague on the Arzawans [2]”. The reference is to Pritchard (1969), Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. But this is 750 pages long, and Trevisanato does not give us a page number! How does he expect readers to find the relevant passage? Would it be unfair to suggest that this might be a deliberate strategy to make it harder to check the claims? Anyway, I think that the referenced passage is prayer b from the ‘Plague Prayers of Mursilis’ on page 396, where Mursilis, king of the Hittites in the late 14th century BCE, says:
Let the gods take an interest therein again! Send ye the plague, hostility, famine (and) evil fever into the Mitanni land and the Arzawa land! … Look ye upon the Hatti land with favorable eyes, but the evil plague give to [those other] countries!
Plague Prayers of Mursilis, prayer b. Translated by Albrecht Goetze. In James B. Pritchard, editor (1969). Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, page 396. Princeton University Press.
So Trevisanato is right that the Hittite king wished the plague upon the Arzawans. But did Mursilis have any practical plans for achieving this? He says that the plague had been brought from Egypt by prisoners of war, so he knew that it could be spread from person to person:
When they moved the prisoners to the Hatti land, these prisoners carried the plague into the Hatti land. From that day on people have been dying in the Hatti land.
Plague Prayers of Mursilis, prayer a. In Pritchard, page 395.
But the king’s proposed remedy is to make restitution to the storm-god for a broken oath and to the river Mala for the cessation of offerings since his father’s time:
The reasons for the plague that were established when I made the matter the subject of a series of oracles, these have I removed. I have made [ample] restitution. The matter of the (broken) oath which was established (as a cause) in connection with the plague, offerings for those oaths I have made to the Hattian Storm-god, my lord. … (As for) the offerings to the river Mala that were established (as a cause) in connection with the plague—since I am now on my way to the river Mala, acquit me of that offering to the river Mala, O Hattian Storm-god my lord, and ye gods, my lords! The offering to the river Mala I promise to make, I promise to complete it properly.
Plague Prayers of Mursilis, prayer a. In Pritchard, page 395.
Second claim, “Neshite rituals describe how a ram and a woman attending the animal were sent on the road, spreading the disease along the way [15]”. The reference is Jan Bremmer (1983), ‘Scapegoat Rituals in Ancient Greece’, Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 87, pages 299–320. The referenced passage is a Hittite ritual, which Bremmer has quoted in its entirety from Gurney (1977).
When evening comes, whoever the army commanders are, each of them prepares a ram—whether it is a white ram or a black ram does not matter at all. Then I† twine a cord of white wool, red wool, and green wool, and the officer twists it together, and I bring a necklace, a ring, and a chalcedony stone and I hang them on the ram’s neck and horns, and at night they tie them in front of the tents and say: “Whatever deity is prowling about (?), whatever deity has caused this pestilence, now I have tied up these rams for you, be appeased!” And in the morning I drive them out to the plain, and with each ram they take 1 jug of beer, 1 loaf, and 1 cup of milk(?). Then in front of the king’s tent he makes a finely dressed woman sit and puts with her a jar of beer and 3 loaves. Then the officers lay their hands on the rams and say: “Whatever deity has caused this pestilence, now see! These rams are standing here and they are very fat in liver, heart, and loins. Let human flesh be hateful to him, let him be appeased by these rams.” And the officers point at the rams and the king points at the decorated woman, and the rams and the woman carry the loaves and the beer through the army and they chase them out to the plain. And they go running on to the enemy’s frontier without coming to any place of ours, and the people say: “Look! Whatever illness there was among men, oxen, sheep, horses, mules, and donkeys in this camp, these rams and this woman have carried it away from the camp. And the country that finds them shall take over this evil pestilence.”
O. R. Gurney (1977). Some Aspects of Hittite Religion, page 49. Oxford University Press.
† The writer is “Askhella, a man of Hapalla”. Hapalla was an Arzawan kingdom in central Anatolia, a vassal state of the Hittite Empire.
Trevisanato interprets this as a manual for biological warfare, the rams and the woman carrying the disease into enemy territory. But does this interpretation make any sense at all? I’m sure you can think of some practical difficulties involved in carrying it out. Both Gurney and Bremmer interpret this ritual as an instance of the ‘scapegoat’ custom common to Mediterranean cultures:
The animal serves a double purpose. It carries away the infection into a foreign country, and at the same time it is offered to the hostile deity as a substitute for human flesh. The first is pure analogical magic, as described by Frazer; the infection is transferred to the animal by the laying on of hands in the Askhella ritual and by the symbolical tying of coloured wool in all three. Whether the second idea is also purely magical because—as Kiimmel maintains—the numen is under compulsion through the performance of the rite to accept the substitute, is questionable. At least a prayer is addressed to the deity, which seems to imply an element of religion.
Gurney, page 49.
This custom is most well known from the book of Leviticus:
When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the wilderness in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness.
Leviticus 16:20–22. New International Version.
Third claim: “The practice was confirmed by Arzawans who reacted to the plague caused by enemy by sending their own ram on the road in the direction of the enemy troops, and asking the gods to direct their attention to the Neshite land [2].” Again we are faced with the problem of finding the reference in the 750-page Pritchard, but I think it is the ‘Ritual Against Pestilence’:
These are the words of Uhha-muwas, the Arzawa man. If people are dying in the country and if some enemy god has caused that, I act as follows: They drive up one ram. They twine together blue wool, red wool, yellow wool, black wool and white wool, make it into a crown and crown the ram with it. They drive the ram on to the road leading to the enemy and while doing so they speak as follows:
“Whatever god of the enemy land has caused this plague—see! We have now driven up this crowned ram to pacify thee, O god! Just as the herd is strong, but keeps peace with the ram, do thou, the god who has caused this plague, keep peace with the Hatti land! In favor turn again toward the Hatti land!”
‘Ritual Against Pestilence’. Translated by Albrecht Goetze. In Pritchard, page 347.
This is clearly the same ritual described by Askhella, down to the coloured wool, and in fact Gurney says that the two texts are “inscribed on the same tablet” (page 48). So the same criticisms apply: this seems to be a religious scapegoat ritual, not a practical means of biological warfare. Nor do we have a date for these texts that links them securely with the Hittite–Arzawan war.
Additionally, although Uhha-muwas does ask the god to turn toward the Hatti land as claimed, he requests that the attention be favourable. This is inconsistent with Trevisanato’s interpretation, which is that this text is associated with the Arzawan side of the Hittite–Arzawan war, in which case one would expect the requested attention to be unfavourable.
Finally, Trevisanato’s theory of biological warfare depends on the plague of the late 14th century being an epidemic of tularemia, so that it is transmissible between humans and sheep. However, the main evidence presented for this claim is that “the description in Neshite records [2], e.g., knees, debilitation, and sensation of internal burning, is also coherent with tularemia”. I was unable to find this passage in reference [2], but I believe that the intended reference is to the Ten-Year Annals of Mursili. This is the translation given by Bryce:
My Lord, the mighty Storm God, revealed to me his divine power. He unleashed a thunderbolt and my army saw the thunderbolt and the Land of Arzawa saw it. The thunderbolt proceeded and struck the Land of Arzawa and struck Apasa, the city of Uhhaziti, and brought Uhhaziti to his knees, and he fell ill.
Trevor Bryce (1998). The Kingdom of the Hittites, page 210. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
The translation here seems to be difficult: Jaan Puhvel (1983, page 479) says that “the correct rendering ought to be ‘it (i.e., the storm-god’s thunderbolt) lodged in Uhhazitis’ knees, and he fell ill’”. In my opinion, it is laughable to imagine that there are any prospects of accurately diagnosing Uhhaziti’s illness based on this passage. And even if one could, there would still be no evidence that Uhhaziti’s illness was the same as the plague.
