KA-NA

aromatic reed, sweet cane (commodity; spelling variant of QA-NE)

𐘾KAAB7757 entries𐘅NAAB0673 entries
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Reading
qana / qanû
Confidence
Candidate
Root
*ḳanaw/y- ‘reed’
Kind
Commodity
Language
Semitic
Rank
—

Compared forms

  • Ugaritic𐎖𐎐qnqn ‘reed, cane’ (DULAT); see QA-NE
  • EblaiteGIŠ.GI = ga-nu-um ‘reed’, q in the G-series (GlOS 1, 348)
  • Hebrewקָנֶהqānehqāneh קָנֶה ‘reed, cane’ — qəneh-bośem ‘aromatic cane’ Exod 30:23, anointing-oil ingredient
  • Akkadianqanûqanû ‘reed’
  • Linear B(σχοῖνοςcf. ko-nocf. ko-no (σχοῖνος ‘aromatic rush’) — semantic parallel in Mycenaean spice accounting

Attestations2 cited

  1. HT 23aKA-NA CYP ¹⁄₃aromatic reed, sweet cane (heading; NI-RA fills the slot on HT23b)
  2. HT 123+124bKA-NA […]sweet cane or reed(?)

Commentary

HT 23a: KA-NA heads an aromatics ledger (CYP, oil subtypes, VIN and SA-SA-ME ‘sesame’), the ground for Heb. qāneh ‘reed’ and qəneh-bośem ‘sweet cane’. A spelling of QA-NE (KH 47), with KA for q (Gordon 1966, §§4, 76). On HT 123+124b the central lacuna follows it, and the tablet shows the word recurring in the accounts without fixing the product. Rival: lapis lazuli, a homograph (Ugaritic ỉqnủ, var. qnỉm, from Akk. uqnû).

On the 3D inscriptions

Not written on any of the 82 inscriptions modelled so far.

Linear A Lexicon