The Land of Hana: Kings, Chronology, and Scribal Traditions.

• Author: Chavalas, Mark W.
• Position: Book Review

The Land of Hana: Kings, Chronology, and Scribal Traditions. By AMANDA H. PODANY. Bethesda, Md.: CDL PRESS, 2002. Pp. xiv + 305. $60.

As Assyriologists know, many periods of Mesopotamian history are not illuminated by descriptions of political events, but by "history from below," as Marc Van De Mieroop has called it in Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History (London: Routledge, 1999), e.g., by ration lists, sale contracts, and other written aspects of society. In light of this, Podany's goal in this work is to study the Hana contracts and other texts that reveal important bits of information about Hana history and the history of the city of Terqa. Thus she has taken these bits of information, or "snapshots" as she calls them, and placed them in historical perspective and chronological order. The result is a noteworthy reconstruction of the Hana kingdom, and an important addition to our understanding of ancient pre-classical Syrian history. Podany clearly shows why this material is so important, namely that it helps to unlock secrets about poorly attested mid-second-millennium B.C. Mesopotamia, especially the period between the fall of Babylon in 1595 B.C. and the remainder of the sixteenth century. Although some historians may be surprised that she does this on a "shoestring," Podany is to be commended for the manner in which she has taken advantage of all available data, however apparently insignificant.

This research stems from Podany's previous study of Hana texts and her close examination of the dates of the contracts ("A Middle Babylonian Date for the Hana Kingdom," JCS 43-45 [1991-93]: 53-62). The book is divided into three major sections. She begins with a historical overview of the Hana period, followed by a new edition of seventeen previously published Hana texts, and ends with a detailed discussion of the clauses used in the Hana real estate contracts and changes over time in the physical attributes of the texts.

Fortunately, there are a number of data points from Old Babylonian. Mitannian, and Middle Assyrian sources that have helped Podany to anchor Hana chronology. These include synchronisms with three Old Babylonian monarchs, two Mitanni kings, and Tukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria. Unfortunately, Podany did not have access to the thirty or more Hana tablets dated to the Mitanni period found by Rouault at Terqa (first mentioned by Rouault in "Cultures locales et influences exterieures: Le cas de Terqa," Studi Micenei ed...