The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)Duncker, Max
History
The History of Antiquity, Vol. 2 (of 6)
Duncker, Max
History, Ancient
In any case it is clear that a place of the name of Asshur, the site of
which is marked by the ruins of Kileh-Shergat, was inhabited about the
year 1800 B.C., and that about this time sanctuaries were raised in it.
The name of the place was taken from the god specially worshipped there.
As Babel (Gate of El) was named after the god El, Asshur was named after
the god of that name. The city was Asshur's city, the land Asshur's
land. Beside the city of Asshur, about 75 miles up the Tigris, there
must have been at the time indicated a second place of the name of Ninua
(Nineveh), the site of which is marked by the ruins of Kuyundshik and
Nebbi Yunus (opposite Mosul), since, according to the statement of
Shalmanesar I., king of Assyria, Samsi-Bin built another temple here to
the goddess Istar.[32] Ismidagon, as well as Samsi-Bin, is called in the
inscription of Tiglath Pilesar I. "Patis of Asshur." The meaning of this
title is not quite clear; the word is said to mean viceroy. If by this
title a vice-royalty over the land of Asshur is meant, we may assume
that Assyria was a colony of Babylonia--that it was under the supremacy
of the kings of Babylon, and ruled by their viceroys. But since at a
later period princes of Assyria called themselves "Patis of Asshur," as
well as "kings of Asshur," the title may be explained as meaning that
the old princes of Assyria called themselves viceroys of the god of the
land, of the god Asshur. Moreover, it would be strange that a colony of
Babylonia, which was under the supremacy of that country, should make
its protecting god a deity different from that worshipped in Babylonia.
From this evidence we may assume that about the year 1800 B.C. a state
named Asshur grew up between the Tigris and the Lesser Zab. This state
must have passed beyond the lower stages of civilisation at the time
when the princes erected temples to their gods at more than one chief
place in their dominions, when they could busy themselves with buildings
in honour of the gods after the example of the ancient princes of Erech
and Nipur, of Hammurabi, and his successors at Babylon. With this result
the statements in the inscriptions of Tuthmosis III do not entirely
agree. Two hundred years after the time of Ismidagon and Samsi-Bin they
speak only of the chief of Asshur, and of tribute in lapis-lazuli and
tree-trunks; but this divergence is not sufficient to make us affirm
with certainty that the "Assuru" of Tuthmosis has no reference whatever
to Assyria. If we were able to place the earliest formation of a state
on the Lower Euphrates about the year 2500 B.C., the beginnings of
Assyria, according to the inferences to be drawn from the evidence of
the first Tiglath Pilesar and the tiles of Kileh-Shergat, could not be
placed later than the year 2000 B.C.
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