講演・口頭発表等

国際会議
2021年7月14日

Disease, Famine, and Human Trafficking: Health and Social Crisis Recorded in the Late Babylonian Astronomical Diaries

67th Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale
  • Mitsuma,Yasuyuki

記述言語
英語
会議種別
口頭発表(一般)
主催者
University of Turin
開催地
Turin

My presentation analyses the descriptions of diseases in the Late Babylonian Astronomical Diaries and especially examines the backgrounds and impacts of the health crisis occurred in 108 BC. The diaries of this year often mention some disease, once called rišûtu, spread in Babylonia. The disease of 108 BC seems to occur in the ceasing threat of Arabs in Babylonia from the mid 120s BC. The diary of Addar 108 BC records a sacrilege in Esangil by an Arsacid official. The Arsacid sacrilege may reflect a financial difficulty in the Arsacid court in this year and show their powerless to handle the condition in Babylonia. Furthermore, a high barley price and social-economic confusion recorded in the diary for Kislīm 108BC. This indicates an abnormal status of food production or food supply occurred in Babylonia with the spread of the disease and remind us of the confusion in food supply occurred last year in Japan, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The abnormal socioeconomic situation in 108 BC Babylonia also might have been caused by the spread of the disease in that year. I will analyze other cases of disease spreading described in the diaries and clarify their relationships with cont