Erishum I or ErišuI c. 1905 BC — c. 1866 BC or c. 1974 BC — c. 1935 BC, son of Ilu-shuma, was the thirty-third ruler of Assyria to appear on the Assyrian King List. He reigned for forty years. One of two copies of the Assyrian King List which include him gives his reign length as only 30 years, but this contrasts with a complete list of his limmu, some 40, which are extant from tablets recovered at KarumKanesh. He had titled himself both as, "Ashur is king, Erishum I is vice-regent" and the, “Išši’ak Aššur”ki, at a time when Assur was controlled by an oligarchy of the patriarchs of the prominent families and subject to the “judgment of the city”, or dīn alim. According to Veenhof, Erishum I’s reign marks the period when the institution of the annually appointed limmu was introduced. The Assyrian King List observes of his immediate predecessors, “in all six kings known from bricks, whose limmu have not been marked/found”.
Biography
As Assur's merchant family firms vigorously pursued commercial expansion, Erišum I had established distant trading outposts in Anatolia referred to as karums. Karums were established along trade routes into Anatolia and included: Kanesh, Ankuwa, Hattusa, and eighteen other locations that have yet to be identified, some of which had been designated as “warbatums” The markets traded in: tin, textiles, lapis lazuli, iron, antimony, copper, bronze, wool, and grain, in exchange for gold and silver. Around 23,000 tablets have been found at Kanesh spanning a period of 129 years from the thirtieth year of Erishum I’s reign through to that of Puzur-Ashur II or possibly Naram-Sin with the earliest from level II including copies of his inscriptions. These were discovered in 1948 with three other similar though fragmentary lists and two copies of an inscription of Erishum I detailing the regulations concerning the administration of justice in Assur, including the possibility of plaintiffs to obtain a rābiṣum to represent them: Following the example set by Erishum I's father, he had proclaimed tax exemptions, or as Michael Hudson has interpreted, "Erishum I proclaimed a remission of debts payable in silver, gold, copper, tin, barley, wool, down to chaff." This appears in an inscription on one side of a large broken block of alabaster, apparently described as a ṭuppu. The shallow depression on its top has led some to identify it as a door socket. His numerous contemporary inscriptions commemorate his building of the temple for Assur, called “Wild Bull” with its courtyard and two beer vats and the accompanying curses to those who would use them for their intended purposes. Erishum I’s other civic constructions included the temple of Ishtar and that of Adad. He had exercised eminent domain to clear an area from the Sheep Gate to the People’s Gate to make way for an enlargement of the city wall, so that he could boast that “I made a wall higher than the wall my father had constructed.” His efforts had been recalled by the later kings Šamši-Adad I, in his rebuilding dedication, and Šulmanu-ašared I, who noted that 159 years had passed between Erishum I’s work and that of Shamsh-Adad I, and a furthet 580 years until his own when a fire had gutted it.
Limmu during Erishum I's reign
The following is a list of the annually-elected limmu from the first full year of Erishum I's reign until the year of his death c. 1935 BC : 1974 BC Šu-Ištar, son of Abila
