ハナ国とカトゥナ

Abstract

In her recent book, The Land of Hana (2002), A. H, Podany classified all of the Hana-tablets published so far into three periods: the early, middle, late periods. From the late period (ca. 1400-1200 BCE), except for a dedication inscription of “Ammurapi, king of the land of Hana” (LH 16), we have just two contracts of real estate transaction (LH 15 and LH 17): one (LH 15) dealing with “an orchard in the irrigation district of the city of Qatuna, ” and the other (LH 17) with a 6 acre field in an unknown district. We can discern however that the field mentioned in the latter text must be also located in the Qatuna district because a canal adjacent to it named Hubur-GAL seems to be same as the canal attested in the former text. Now a new Hana-type tablet, written in Middle Assyrian script, can be added to the two previously known: It is also a contract concerning a 1 acre field at “the gate of Qatuna.” If it is not just coincidental that all three Hana-texts are related to the Qatuna district, Qatuna must have been the place where the scribal tradition of Hana was established in the late Hana period. This might suggest that the core land of Hana people had moved north from Terqa to Qatuna in this period. This might also explain why “the land of Hana” referred to in two of the letters of the late 13th century found at Dur-Katlimu would not be located in the Terqa district, but in a north-west Habur river region.