24 Facts About Qatna

Qatna ( Tell Misrife or Tell Mishrifeh) was an ancient city located in Homs Governorate, Syria.

Qatna was inhabited by different peoples, most importantly the Amorites, who established the kingdom, followed by the Arameans; Hurrians became part of the society in the 15th century BC and influenced Qatna's written language.

The area surrounding Qatna was fertile, with abundant water, which made the lands suitable for grazing and supported a large population that contributed to the prosperity of the city.

The toponym "Qatna" is strictly related to waterways and lakes; this could be a reference to the artificial narrowing that created a lake from the springs located southwest of the city, since Qatna grew on the eastern shore of a now dried-up lake.

Also under the rule of Qatna were various cities in the Beqaa Valley and the cities in the region of Apum, in the modern Damascus Oasis.

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Relations with Yamhad worsened during Ishi-Addu's reign and the conflict evolved into border warfare; Qatna occupied the city of Parga in the region of Hamath for a while before Sumu-Epuh retook it.

The following year, after petitions by Qatna, Shamshi-Adad sent an army to help Ishi-Addu deal with the rebellion.

Yarim-Lim I gained the upper hand and turned his kingdom into the supreme power in the Levant; Qatna was forced to respect the borders and interests of Yamhad.

In 1772 BC, the Banu-Yamina tribes revolted against Zimri-Lim, who asked Qatna for help; Amut-pi?el II sent his troops to Dur-Yahdun-Lim to support Mari, but when he asked for Mariote military support at a later time, Zimri-Lim hesitated as Yarim-Lim I was expressly against such a dispatch.

When Qatna tried to establish an alliance with Eshnunna, Mari, which was at war with Eshnunna, arrested the messengers on the pretext that Zimri-Lim feared for their safety; in reality, the king of Mari was probably acting on behalf of Yamhad to prevent Qatna from establishing such an alliance.

The political and commercial importance of Qatna declined quickly during the Late Bronze Age, around 1600 BC, as a result of growing Egyptian and Mitannian influences.

Thutmose III did not rule directly in Qatna but established vassalage ties and attended an archery contest with the Qatanean king.

The Mitannian king Tushratta retaliated by invading Qatna, and burning the royal palace; an event dated to around 1340 BC.

The Shattiwaza treaty, which describes the events of the first Syrian war, mentions that Qatna was invaded and destroyed, and its people were deported during the war.

Akizzi survived the destruction of his city and continued his communication with the pharaoh for some time; in an Amarna letter, the king of Qatna described to Akhenaten the actions of Suppiluliuma and his plundering of Qatna.

Kingdom of Qatna had a predominantly Semitic Amorite population; all the personal names from Qatna in the Mari archive were Amorite.

Amorites in Qatna spoke their own language, but kings communicated with their counterparts using Akkadian, which was the language of writing in the city.

Qatna's Akkadian became heavily influenced by Hurrian in the 15th and 14th centuries BC; Richter argued that a special Akkadian–Hurrian hybrid dialect developed in Qatna.

Details about the religious life in Qatna are not available due to the rarity of written evidence from the city; in general, many cults seems to have existed and mixed in Qatna, most prominently the royal ancestor cult, the cult of gods and the cult of the dead.

Judging by the royal statues found in the royal hypogeum antechamber, a king of Qatna wore clothes different from those worn in Mesopotamia; his robes would have reached his ankles and the hem on his shawl would have been in the shape of a thick rope, while his beard was short and his headdress consisted of a broad band.

Elephants, which lived in western Syria, were esteemed in Qatna and connected to the royal family; they were apparently hunted by the royals and the king himself, as there is evidence that their bones were displayed in the palace; thus, elephants were part of the royal ideology and hunting an elephant was a symbol of prestige that glorified the strength of the king.

The volute-shaped plant is one of the most widespread international motifs; many pieces from the royal hypogeum were decorated with the motif, but Qatna had its own typical volute, where the crown is a single long lobe with dotted pendants branching out of the corners of the upper volute.

Qatna had a distinctive local craftsmanship; the wall paintings in the royal palace, though including Aegean motifs, depict elements that are not typical either in Syria or the Aegean region, such as turtles and crabs.

Main routes passing Qatna were from Babylon to Byblos through Palmyra, from Ugarit to Emar, and from Anatolia to Egypt.