There are times when certain phrases become over-used or turn into clichés. It appears to me that we are now in such a time, and some phrases that are fast becoming clichés may be ones like, ‘These are unprecedented times’, or ‘This is the greatest challenge we have faced in the last century’, and thinking ahead, ‘When things return to normal I shall... ’. It is of course the COVID-19 pandemic that lies behind these and other such phrases. Our lives have undergone almost unthinkable changes in a relatively short period of time. Nearly everyone works differently now than before. Most workplaces have closed, and that includes the offices of the PEF. Electronic communication has become the norm, but we are not the first generation to experience such devastatingly deadly outbreaks of disease. Our understanding of past epidemics are for the most part based on textual evidence, but archaeology has also played a role in helping us understand the extent to which an epidemic can spread. Factors such as when a person is contagious and for how long, will determine the rate of spread of a disease when combined with the distance a person can travel during this contagious period before succumbing to the disease. At different times in history, settlement patterns have varied, and this has impacted the spread of disease. A low population density would result in fewer wide-spread epidemics, and therefore pandemics are pretty much limited to relatively modern times. In the fourteenth–thirteenth centuries BCE the Hittite kingdom suffered from a ‘plague’. Trevor Bryce in his The Kingdom of the Hittites (Oxford, 2005) notes that Mursili II spent years at the start of his reign propitiating the gods who had brought such a devastating and decimating plague upon his country. In ANET we can read the desperate and lengthy prayer of Mursili who clearly believed that the plague was the result of some offence which had to be remedied. We may not share Mursili’s conclusions as to the cause of the epidemic, but apparently it had weakened the country sufficiently so that it was subjected to more attacks by their neighbours, and thus of great concern to the king. During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian (527–565 CE), recent (2013) DNA studies conducted by Michaela Harbeck et al. on skeletal remains from a sixth-century cemetery in Bavaria have confirmed that Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium that caused the Black Death Plague of the fourteenth century, was the cause of the Justinian Plague. This evidence comes from an area to the north of the Alps and sheds light on the extent of the transmission of this epidemic in a period when extensive travel was not the norm. The devastating effects of pandemics is tragically illustrated by the number of deaths that resulted from the Spanish Influenza of 1917–1918 when as many as 40–50 million may have died according to the WHO. That is more than twice as many as total military deaths in WWI. As ferociously destructive as epidemics and pandemics have been in the past, societies have eventually recovered and returned to a new normal. Along with most other organisations and businesses in the UK, the PEF offices have been closed. We look forward to welcoming you back to the PEF when we eventually return to the new normal.

中文翻译：

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流行病

有时某些短语会被过度使用或变成陈词滥调。在我看来，我们现在处于这样一个时代，一些迅速成为陈词滥调的短语可能是这样的，“这是前所未有的时代”，或者“这是我们在上个世纪面临的最大挑战”，以及提前思考，'当事情恢复正常时，我会......'。当然，这些和其他此类短语背后的原因是 COVID-19 大流行。我们的生活在相对较短的时间内发生了几乎无法想象的变化。现在几乎每个人的工作方式都与以前不同。大多数工作场所已经关闭，其中包括 PEF 的办公室。电子通信已成为常态，但我们并不是经历如此致命的疾病爆发的第一代人。我们对过去流行病的理解大部分是基于文本证据，但考古学在帮助我们了解流行病的传播范围方面也发挥了作用。诸如一个人何时具有传染性以及传染时间等因素，结合一个人在此传染期在感染疾病之前可以移动的距离，将决定疾病的传播速度。在历史的不同时期，定居模式各不相同，这影响了疾病的传播。人口密度低会减少广泛流行的流行病，因此流行病几乎仅限于相对现代的时期。在公元前 14 至 13 世纪，赫梯王国遭受了一场“瘟疫”。特雷弗·布莱斯在他的赫梯王国（牛津，2005）指出，穆尔西里二世在他统治之初花了数年时间来安抚给他的国家带来如此毁灭性和毁灭性瘟疫的众神。在 ANET 中，我们可以读到 Mursili 绝望而冗长的祈祷，他清楚地相信瘟疫是某种必须纠正的冒犯的结果。我们可能不同意穆尔西里关于流行病原因的结论，但显然它已经足够削弱了这个国家，以至于它受到了邻国的更多袭击，因此引起了国王的极大关注。在拜占庭皇帝查士丁尼（公元 527-565 年）统治期间，Michaela Harbeck 等人最近（2013 年）进行了 DNA 研究。巴伐利亚六世纪墓地的骨骼遗骸证实鼠疫耶尔森氏菌是导致 14 世纪黑死病瘟疫的同一种细菌，是查士丁尼瘟疫的起因。这一证据来自阿尔卑斯山以北的一个地区，揭示了这种流行病在广泛旅行不是常态的时期的传播程度。1917-1918 年西班牙流感造成的死亡人数悲惨地说明了大流行的破坏性影响，据世界卫生组织称，当时可能有多达 40-5000 万人死亡。这是第一次世界大战中军人死亡总数的两倍多。与过去流行病和大流行病一样具有凶猛的破坏性，社会最终已经恢复并恢复到新常态。与英国的大多数其他组织和企业一样，PEF 办事处已关闭。当我们最终恢复到新常态时，我们期待着欢迎您回到 PEF。这一证据来自阿尔卑斯山以北的一个地区，揭示了这种流行病在广泛旅行不是常态的时期的传播程度。1917-1918 年西班牙流感造成的死亡人数悲惨地说明了大流行的破坏性影响，据世界卫生组织称，当时可能有多达 40-5000 万人死亡。这是第一次世界大战中军人死亡总数的两倍多。与过去流行病和大流行病一样具有凶猛的破坏性，社会最终已经恢复并恢复到新常态。与英国的大多数其他组织和企业一样，PEF 办事处已关闭。当我们最终恢复到新常态时，我们期待着欢迎您回到 PEF。这一证据来自阿尔卑斯山以北的一个地区，揭示了这种流行病在广泛旅行不是常态的时期的传播程度。1917-1918 年西班牙流感造成的死亡人数悲惨地说明了大流行的破坏性影响，据世界卫生组织称，当时可能有多达 40-5000 万人死亡。这是第一次世界大战中军人死亡总数的两倍多。与过去流行病和大流行病一样具有凶猛的破坏性，社会最终已经恢复并恢复到新常态。与英国的大多数其他组织和企业一样，PEF 办事处已关闭。当我们最终恢复到新常态时，我们期待着欢迎您回到 PEF。