Assur


Aššur, also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian Empire, the Middle Assyrian Empire, and for a time, of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The remains of the city lie on the western bank of the Tigris River, north of the confluence with its tributary, the Little Zab, in what is now Iraq, more precisely in the al-Shirqat District of the Saladin Governorate.
Occupation of the city itself continued for approximately 4,000 years, from c. 2600 BC to the mid-14th century AD, when the forces of Timur massacred its population. The site is a World Heritage Site, having been added to that organisation's list of sites in danger in 2003 following the conflict that erupted following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and as a result of a proposed dam which would flood some of the site. Assur lies south of the site of Nimrud and 100 km south of Nineveh.

History of research

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 by a team from the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft led initially by Robert Koldewey and later by Walter Andrae. More than 16,000 clay tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered. Many of the objects found made their way to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
More recently, Ashur was excavated by B. Hrouda for the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Bavarian Ministry of Culture in 1990. During the same period, in 1988 and 1989, the site was being worked by R. Dittmann on behalf of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Name

Aššur is the name of the city, of the land ruled by the city, and of its tutelary deity from which the natives took their name, as did the entire nation of Assyria which encompassed what is today northern Iraq, north east Syria and south east Turkey. Today the Assyrians are still found throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Turkey, and the Diaspora in the western world. Assur is also the origin of the names Syria and terms for Syriac Christians, these being originally Indo-European derivations of Assyria, and for many centuries applying only to Assyria and the Assyrians before also being applied to the Levant and its inhabitants by the Seleucid Empire in the 3rd century BC.

Early Bronze Age

Archaeology reveals the site of the city was occupied by the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. This was still the Sumerian period, before Assyria emerged in the 25th to 21st century BC. The oldest remains of the city were discovered in the foundations of the Ishtar temple, as well as at the Old Palace. In the subsequent period, the city was ruled by kings from the Akkadian Empire. During the Third Dynasty of Ur, the city was ruled by Assyrian governors subject to the Sumerians.

Old and Middle Assyrian Empire

By the time the Neo-Sumerian Ur-III dynasty collapsed at the hands of the Elamites around the end of the 21st century BC according to the Middle Chronology and mid-20th century according to the Short Chronology following increasing raids by Gutians and Amorites. The native Akkadian-speaking Assyrian kings were now free while Sumer fell under the yoke of the Amorites. The Assyrian king Ushpia who reigned around the 21st century BC is credited with dedicating the first temple of the god Ashur in his home city, although this comes from a later inscription from Shalmaneser I in the 13th century. The temple likely dates to the original settlement of the site when the people of Ashur established their nation under the patronage of the city's god. Soon after in around 2000 BC, Puzur-Ashur I founded a new dynasty, with his successors such as Ilushuma, Erishum I and Sargon I leaving inscriptions regarding the building of temples to Ashur, Adad and Ishtar in the city. Prosperity and independence produced the first significant fortifications in this period. As the region enjoyed relative peace and stability, trade between Mesopotamia and Anatolia increased, and the city of Ashur greatly benefited from its strategic location. Merchants would dispatch their merchandise via caravan into Anatolia and trade primarily at Assyrian colonies in Anatolia, the primary one being at Karum Kanesh.
With Shamshi-Adad I's capital at Assur, he magnified the city's power and influence beyond the Tigris river valley, establishing what some regard as the first Assyrian Empire. In this era, the Great Royal Palace was built, and the temple of Assur was expanded and enlarged with a ziggurat. However, this empire met its end when Hammurabi, the Amorite king of Babylon conquered and incorporated the city into his short lived empire following the death of Ishme-Dagan I around 1756 BC, while the next three Assyrian kings were viewed as vassals. Not long after, the native king Adasi expelled the Babylonians and Amorites from Assur and Assyria as a whole around 1720 BC, although little is known of his successors. Evidence of further building activity is known from a few centuries later, during the reign of a native king Puzur-Ashur III, when the city was refortified and the southern districts incorporated into the main city defenses. Temples to the moon god Sin and the sun god Shamash were built and dedicated through the 15th century BC. The city was subsequently subjugated by the king of Mitanni, Shaushtatar in the late 15th century, taking the gold and silver doors of the temple to his capital, Washukanni, as spoils.
Ashur-uballit I emulated his ancestor Adasi and overthrew the Mitanni empire in 1365 BC. The Assyrians reaped the benefits of this triumph by taking control of the eastern portion of the Mitanni Empire, and later also annexing Hittite, Babylonian, Amorite and Hurrian territory. The following centuries witnessed the restoration of the old temples and palaces of Assur, and the city once more became the throne of a magnanimous empire from 1365 BC to 1076 BC. Tukulti-Ninurta I also constructed a new temple to the goddess Ishtar. The Anu-Adad temple was established later during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser I. The walled area of the city in the Middle Assyrian period made up some.

Neo-Assyrian Empire

In the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the royal residence was transferred to other Assyrian cities. Ashur-nasir-pal II moved the capital from Assur to Kalhu following a series of successful campaigns and produced some of the greatest artworks in the form of colossal lamassu statues and low-relief depictions of the royal court as well as battles. With the reign of Sargon II, a new capital began to rise. Dur-Sharrukin on a scale set to surpass that of Ashurnasirpal's. However, he died in battle and his son and successor Sennacherib abandoned the city, choosing to magnify Niniveh as his royal capital. However, the city of Ashur remained the religious center of the empire and continued to be revered as the holy crown of the empire, due to its temple of the national god Ashur. In the reign of Sennacherib, the House of the New Year, Akitu, was built, and the festivities celebrated in the city. Many of the kings were also buried beneath the Old Palace while some queens were buried in the other capitals such as the wife of Sargon, Ataliya. The city was sacked and largely destroyed during the decisive battle of Assur, a major confrontation between the Assyrian and Median armies.

Achaemenid Empire

After the Medes were overthrown by the Persians as the dominant force in ancient Iran, Assyria was ruled by the Persian Achaemenid Empire from 549 BC to 330 BC. The Assyrians of Mada and Athura had been responsible for gold and glazing works of the palace and for providing Lebanese cedar timber, respectively. The city and region of Ashur had once more gained a degree of militaristic and economic strength. Along with the Assyrians in Mada, a revolt took place in 520 BC but ultimately failed. Assyria seems to have recovered dramatically, and flourished during this period. It became a major agricultural and administrative centre of the Achaemenid Empire, and its soldiers were a mainstay of the Persian Army.

Parthian Empire

The city revived during the Parthian Empire period, particularly between 150 BC and 270 AD, being resettled and becoming an administrative centre of Parthian-ruled Assuristan. Assyriologists Simo Parpola and Patricia Crone suggest Assur may have had outright independence in this period. Other polities such as Beth Garmai, Beth Nuhadra and Adiabene also flourished due to the fact that the Parthians exercised only loose or intermittent control of Assyria. New administrative buildings were erected to the north of the old city, and a palace to the south. The old temple dedicated to the national god of the Assyrians Assur was rebuilt, as were temples to other Assyrian gods.
Assyrian Eastern Aramaic inscriptions from the remains of Ashur have yielded insight into the Parthian-era city with Assyria having its own Aramaic Syriac script, which was the same in terms of grammar and syntax as that found at Edessa and elsewhere in the state of Osroene.
German archaeologist Klaus Beyer published over 600 inscriptions from Mesopotamian towns and cities including Ashur, Dura-Europos, Hatra, Gaddala, Tikrit and Tur Abdin. Given that Christianity had begun to spread amongst the Assyrians throughout the Parthian era, the original Assyrian culture and religion persisted for some time, as proven by the inscriptions that include invocations to the gods Ashur, Nergal, Sin, Ishtar and Shamash, as well as mentions of citizens having compound names that refer to Assyrian gods, such as ʾAssur-ḥēl, ʾAssur-emar, ʾAssur-ntan, and ʾAssur-šma'.
The Roman historian Festus wrote in about 370 that in AD 116 Trajan formed from his conquests east of the Euphrates the new Roman provinces of Mesopotamia and Assyria. The existence of the latter Roman province is questioned by C.S. Lightfoot and F. Miller. In any case, just two years after the province's supposed creation, Trajan's successor Hadrian restored Trajan's eastern conquests to the Parthians, preferring to live with him in peace and friendship.
There were later Roman incursions into Mesopotamia under Lucius Verus and under Septimius Severus, who set up the Roman provinces of Mesopotamia and Osroene.
The Persian Shapur I captured and sacked the city in 257 AD after doing the same to Osroene, Adiabene, Beth Nuhadra, Beth Garmai and Hatra, incorporating them into the Sassanid Empire.
Though destroyed by Shapur I, the city remained inhabited until the 12th and 13th century, when it belonged successively to the Zengid dynasty and the Ilkhanate. It was then abandoned and in part used as a cemetery.

Threats to Assur

The site was put on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in danger in 2003, at which time the site was threatened by a looming large-scale dam project that would have submerged the ancient archaeological site. The dam project was put on hold shortly after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The territory around the ancient site was occupied by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in 2015. Since ISIL had destroyed a number of ancient Assyrian sites, including the cities of Hatra, Khorsabad, and Nimrud, fears rose that Assur would be destroyed too. According to some sources, the citadel of Assur was destroyed or badly damaged in May 2015 by members of IS using improvised explosive devices. An AP report from December 2016 after the Iraqi forces had retaken the area, said that the militants tried to destroy the city's grand entrance arches, but they remained standing and a local historian described the damage as "minor".
As of February 2017, the group no longer controls the site; however, it is not secure enough for archaeological experts to evaluate.