11 · CRISIS · POLITICAL MEMORY

The Prayers of Mursili

A king sought in the archives the cause of twenty years of epidemic

In the face of a long epidemic, Mursili II consulted archives and oracles seeking a religious explanation.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

AI-recreated portrait of Mursili II, head and shoulders on black background; hypothetical appearance. — **Mursili II · AI-RECREATED PORTRAIT · HYPOTHETICAL APPEARANCE**
Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
AI-recreated portrait of Mursili II. The clothing is based on the historical context of the entry; the face, the age represented, the colouration and the details not preserved are interpretive. It is not an authentic photograph nor a scientific facial reconstruction.
Tracekeepers

**Mursili II · AI-RECREATED PORTRAIT · HYPOTHETICAL APPEARANCE**
Reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
AI-recreated portrait of Mursili II. The clothing is based on the historical context of the entry; the face, the age represented, the colouration and the details not preserved are interpretive. It is not an authentic photograph nor a scientific facial reconstruction.
Tracekeepers

History and context

Mursili II describes a prolonged plague that affected Hatti and relates its onset to campaigns of his father Šuppiluliuma I and captives taken from Egyptian territory. To respond, he consults oracles, ancient treaties and broken oaths.

The text is both prayer and political inquiry: it admits dynastic guilt to restore the relationship with the gods. It does not allow identifying a pathogen nor demonstrating by itself how the epidemic spread.

Muršili II consults archival memory, oracles and oaths to explain an epidemic he presents as a prolonged punishment. The prayers link Šuppiluliuma I’s campaigns, captives and dynastic guilt in a religious inquiry of the State.

The text does not preserve sufficient symptoms to identify a modern pathogen and its duration may condense distinct episodes. Tularemia, bubonic plague or other diagnoses must be left out of the scene or labelled as hypotheses.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: the so-called Plague Prayers attribute the crisis to transgressions and remember captives from the war. Interpretation and caution: linking it with tularemia, bubonic plague or another modern disease is hypothetical; the textual duration may condense distinct episodes.

AI-recreated portrait of Mursili II. The clothing is based on the historical context of the entry; the face, the age represented, the colouration and the details not preserved are interpretive. It is not an authentic photograph nor a scientific facial reconstruction.

Catalogue facts

Narrative date: Reign of Mursili II, c. 1321–1295 BCE
Location: Hatti, with reference to campaigns in Syria
Material: Clay tablets · oracular practices
Context: Epidemic, legitimacy and archival memory
Curatorial reading: The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
Date: Reign of Mursili II, c. 1321–1295 BCE
Location: Hatti, with reference to campaigns in Syria
Support: Clay tablets · oracular practices
Documentary coverage: 4 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

If the officiants die, the gods also lose

Muršili introduces in his prayer a practical argument: he asks that those who prepare bread and libations for the gods survive. The crisis threatens not only the dynasty or the army; it can interrupt the maintenance of the cult. The Oriental Institute’s analysis interprets this passage as a form of rhetorical pressure on the divinities: prolonging the punishment would leave without servants those who were meant to resolve it. The prayer allows recognition of a religious negotiation grounded in the temple’s material dependence on human labour.

Research · University of Chicago, Oriental Institute · News & Notes 247, study of the plague prayersAccess recorded: September 5, 2026.

Reference images and provenance

No verifiable entrance photograph is preserved for this representation. You may consult its documentation, but we would not present its face as an exact reconstruction.

Additional visual documentation

A cited publication does not establish which image was used to create the character.

Sources and references

Expand this information and consult its sources

Did you enjoy this exhibit?

Your opinion helps us improve the museum. You can change it whenever you like.

Loading your rating…