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As one of many Levantine toponyms still defying an acceptable identification to date, the case of the 8th century BC settlement Kaspuna ((uru)Ka-as-pu-(u)na) is particularly illustrative of the difficulties met with by many a scholar while attempting to pin down ancient place names onto the archaeological map. Due to a misspelling in the original transcription from the cuneiform, the search for Kaspuna started as far south as the Sharon Plains, to end up more than a century later at the Syrian-Turkish border zone. Following a succinct outline of previous research on the topic, a new identification based on the evidence from the ancient records will be formulated, locating Kaspuna at et-Taale/Kastina, at the mouth of the Nahr el-Bared. The search for Kaspuna having become quite desperate by now, it is hoped that this proposal will finally render full justice to the history of a settlement the very name of which has caused misinterpretations, as well as to the tell it is identified with and which has maintained its name until the 1970s.
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How to Cite: Gubel, E. (2018) “Desperately seeking Kašpuna…Notes on the historical topography of the 'Akkar plain”, Akkadica. 139(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/akkadica.99659