Assur
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Assur, also spelled Ashur, from Assyrian Aššur, was the capital of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city is situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river (coordinates: Template:Coor d).
Assur is also the name of the chief deity of the city. He was considered the highest god in the Assyrian parthenon and the protector of the Assyrian state. In the Mesopotamian mythology he was the equivalent of Babylonian Marduk.
The site of Assur is a United Nations World Heritage Site, but was placed on the list of List of World Heritage Sites in danger in 2003, in part to the conflict in that area, and in part due to a proposed dam, that would flood part of the site.
Exploration of the site of Assur began in 1898 by German archaeologists. Excavations began in 1900 by Friedrich Delitzsch, and were continued in 1903-1913. More than 16,000 tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered. Many of the objects found made their way to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
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Assur in the Third Millennium BC
Archaeology reveals the site was occupied already since the middle of the Third Millennium BC. This was in the Sumerian period before the Assyrian kingdom emerged. The oldest remains of the city were discovered in the foundations of the Ishtar temple as well as at the Old Palace. In the following Old Akkadian period the city was ruled by kings from Akkad. During the Third Dynasty of Ur the city was ruled by a Sumerian governor.
Assur in the Old and Middle Assyrian period
At the start of the Second Millennium local princes had shaken off the foreign yoke when the Sumerian kingdom of Ur collapsed. Assur developed rapidly into a centre for trade and trade routes led from the city to Anatolia. Merchants from Assur established trading colonies in Anatolian towns. These were called kârum and traded mostly with tin and wool (see Kültepe). In the city of Assur the first great temples to the city god Assur and the weather god Adad were erected. The first fortifications were also began in this period.
Assur became the capital of an Assyrian kingdom during the rule of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1781 BC). He expanded the power and influence of the city beyond the Tigris river valley. In this period the Great Royal Palace was built, and the temple of Assur was expanded and enlarged with a ziggurat. The Old Assyrian kingdom came to end when Hammurabi of Babylon incorporated the city into his kingdom after the death of Shamshi-Adad. Renewed building activities is known a few centuries later during the reign of a native king Puzur-Assur III when the city was refortified and the southern quarters incorporated into the main city defenses. Temples to the moon god Sin (Nanna)and the sun god Shamash were erected in the fifteenth century BC. The city then became subjugated to the kingdom of Mitanni.
Assyria regained its independency in the fourteenth century BC and in the following centuries the old temples and palaces were restored. Tukulti-Ninurta I (1244-1208 BC) also started building a new temple to the goddess Ishtar. The Anu-Adad-temple was constructed during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I (1115-1075 BC). The walled area of the city in the Middle Assyrian period made up some 120 ha, or 300 acres.
Assur in the Neo-Assyrian period and later
In the Neo-Assyrian period (912-612 BC) was the royal residence transferred to other Assyrian cities. Assur-nasir-pal II (884-884 BC) moved the capital from Assur to Kalhu (Nimrud).Yet the city of Assur remained the religious centre of the empire due to its temple of the national god Assur. In the reign of Sennacherib (705-682 BC) the House of the New Year, akitu, was built and the festivities celebrated in the city. Several Assyrian rulers were also buried beneath the Old Palace. The end of the glourious days of Assur came in 614 BC when the city was sacked and destroyed by an army from Media.
The city was reoccupied some centuries later in the Parthian period. New administrative buildings were erected to the north of the old city and a palace to the south. The old Assur temple was also rebuilt. However, the city was destroyed again by the Sassanid king Shapur I (241-272 AD). Some settlements at the site is known from the twelth and thirteenth centuries but afterwards only by Bedouins.
See also
cs:Aššúr de:Assur (Stadt) es:Assur fr:Assur (ville) he:האימפריה האשורית ja:アッシュール nl:Assur no:Assur (by) pl:Aszur sv:Ashur
Bibliography
- Walter Andrae: Das wiedererstandene Assur. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1938 (2. Aufl. Beck, München 1977). ISBN 3-406-02947-7
- Walter Andrae: Babylon. Die versunkene Weltstadt und ihr Ausgräber Robert Koldewey. de Gruyter, Berlin 1952.
- Eva Cancik-Kirschbaum: Die Assyrer. Geschichte, Gesellschaft, Kultur. C.H.Beck Wissen, München 2003. ISBN 3-406-50828-6
- Olaf Matthes: Zur Vorgeschichte der Ausgrabungen in Assur 1898-1903/05. MDOG Berlin 129, 1997, 9-27. ISSN 0342-118X
- P. A. Miglus: Das Wohngebiet von Assur, Stratigraphie und Architektur. Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-7861-1731-4
- Susan L. Marchand: Down from Olympus. Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany 1750-1970. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1996. ISBN 0691043930
- Conrad Preusser: Die Paläste in Assur. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1996. ISBN 3-7861-2004-8