マリ文書における ha. na の解釈をめぐって

Abstract

The term “ha. na” found in the Mari texts from the Old Babylonian period has been interpreted as a proper noun referring to a “Hanean”. However, in his paper of 1992, J. -M. Durand concluded that ha. na did not designate a certain ethnicity, but was used as a common noun meaning “nomad” or “bedouin”. Since then his explanotion has been generally accepted. Meanwhile D. E. Fleming took ha. na as Sim'al pastoralists, and W. Heimpel took ha.na in three ways: (1) the ancestral tribal unit, (2) nomad or pastoralists, and (3) Sim'al pastoralists. But is it possible to consider ha.na as meaning a “nomad” or “bedouin” or “Sim'al pastoralist”?As Heimpel wrote, it is clear from a number of the kispum-rituals and the Assyrian King List that ha. na designates a certain group of tribes claiming common ancestry among the northern Mesopotamian nomads (e. g., hana Yamin (a), hana Sim'al, pursat hanû). I think it probable that throught this consciousness of unity, the nomads in northern Mesopotamia called themselves “Haneans”. Namely, the term ha. na was the general term for those nomadic tribes: accordingly, the term ha. na must be considered as a proper noun, “Hanean”.In the administrative texts of Mari, the majority of names of tribes (Yamin and Sim'al) and of clans (ga'um) appear in designations of individuals. ha. na also appears thus. However, in about half of the texts, ha. na does not refer to personal identity, especially when mentioned among occupational names. In these cases, ha. na is clearly meant to be a common noun, a “pastoralist”. Moreover, the texts of tebibtum (census) employ the term ha. na to designate nomads in general in the target region of the census.From these observations, I argue that the term ha.na was originally used as proper noun referring to a “Hanean” and that from it a common noun was derived with the meaning “pastoralist”. However, it does not seem that the word meant a “Sim'al pastoralist”.