In the Roman and Byzantine periods, Qatanna was home to extensive settlement including agricultural institutions, roads, and many burial caves.
Ottoman era Incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire in 1517 with all of Palestine, Qatanna appeared in the 1596 Ottoman
tax registers as being in the
Nahiya of Quds of the
Liwa of
Quds. It had a population of 12 households, all Muslim, and paid taxes on wheat, barley, olives, occasional revenues, goats and/or beehives. In 1838
Katunneh was noted as a Muslim village, part of
Beni Malik district, located west of Jerusalem. In 1863, the French explorer
Victor Guérin found the village to have 250 inhabitants, while an Ottoman village list of about 1870 showed that
Kattane had a population of 300, in 57 houses, though the population count included only men. It was also noted that it was located north of
Abu Ghosh, in the
Beni Malik district. In 1883, the
PEF's
Survey of Western Palestine described it as a "small village in a deep, narrow, rocky valley, surrounded by fine groves of olives and vegetable gardens." In 1896 the population of
Katanne was estimated to be about 351 persons. By the beginning of the 20th century, residents from Qatanna settled
Khirbat al-Buwayra, establishing it as a dependency – or satellite village – of their home village.
British Mandate era In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Qatanneh had a population 633, all Muslims. In the
1931 census it was counted with
Nitaf, together they had 875 Muslim inhabitants, in 233 houses. In the
1945 statistics Qatanna had a population of 1,150, all Muslims, with 9,464
dunams of land, according to an official land and population survey. Of this, 1,829 dunams were plantations and irrigable land, 1,603 used for cereals, while 32 dunams were built-up (urban) land.
Jordanian era In the wake of the
1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Qatanna came under
Jordanian rule. After the 1948 war, much of Qatanna's land area was designated as "no-man's land" forming a part of the Demilitarized Zone between the armistice lines of Israeli and Jordanian territory. In 1961, the population of Qatanna was 1,897.
Post-1967 Since the
Six-Day War in 1967, Qatanna has been under
Israeli occupation. The population in the 1967 census conducted by the Israeli authorities was 1,594, of whom 151 were refugees. Currently, the town has a total land area of 3,555
dunams, of which 677 dunams are designated as built-up area. After the 1995
Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, civil administration of 716 dunams of Qatanna's land (including the built-up zone) was transferred to the
Palestinian National Authority.
Enclave Qatanna along with
Biddu,
Beit Duqqu,
Beit Surik,
Beit 'Anan,
al-Qubeiba,
Beit Ijza,
Kharayib Umm al Lahimand, and
at-Tira form the "Biddu enclave". The enclave will be linked to Ramallah by underpasses and a road that is fenced on both sides. From the "Biddu enclave" Palestinians will travel along a fenced road that passes under a bypass road to
Bir Nabala enclave, then on a second underpass under Bypass Road 443 to
Ramallah. == Demography ==