Ashur is the tutelary God of ancient Assur, capital city of the Kingdom of Assyria in 2600 BCE. Like many other Mesopotamian cities, Assur is built on a hill. The city is on the western bank of the Tigris River in northern Mesopotamia.
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Located at the borderline between rain-fed and irrigation agriculture, Assur occupies an environmentally sensitive area. Fundamentally it has its own ecologic zone. Because the city is on a natural hill, the original meaning of Ashur relates to the 'deified hill'.
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It stands on a sandstone cliff on the west bank of the Tigris River. 35 km (24 mi) south is the confluence of the Tigris with the little Zab River, originating in Iran.
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The consort of Ashur is Mullisu, an equivalent of Ninlil. He's also associated with the Goddess Šerua and appears at least once as her spouse.
Old Assyrian texts typically interchange the names Ashur and Assur. Pronunciation is similar. The deity is also named as a Mountain God. Other Mountain Deities include
In the beginning Ashur the God has no parent or sibling figures. The Assyrians and a brief Amorite conquest bring many of the Mesopotamian Gods into their pantheon. They include warrior agriculture god Ninurta, creator god Enlil and Inanna (Ishtar), Goddess of the Heavens. In Neo-Assyrian times Ashur appears in the winged sun disc of the Assyrians.
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His right hand is raised in a symbol of blessing. In his left he holds what looks like a composite bow, a weapon made of more than one piece and type of material. Bone, horn, sinew and wood are favored for its making.
The one he holds is a West Asian composite bow. In history, composite bows are documented by c. 1700 BCE. The composite bow is smaller, lighter and faster than previous archery bows.
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Although he symbolically appears as an archer in feathered robe, Ashur is often represented as a bull in art, documents and seals. The bull is worshiped as an animal of Ashur or as the god himself.
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Ashur's epithets include Bull of Heaven, a name shared by the Mesopotamian moon god Sin and other entities including the Bull of Heaven vanquished by Gilgamesh. Ashur's status is depicted as one of the Bull ruling all others.
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The winged solar disc is a well-known symbol of kingship, victory and divinity. Sun gods such as ancient deity Shamash may be represented by a winged disc.
Sun discs often include eagle symbolism as the Eagle is associated with the Sun. A sun disc with horns refers to such entities as the Bull as god and the powerful Egyptian Hathor, divine horned cow goddess.
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In the beginning the rulers of Assur do not call themselves Kings. Reserving the term King for a God, the head of state takes the title of governor.
It's a similar system to the Sumerian city of Eshnunna. Tishpak the patron deity of Eshnunna may be familiar as owner of the snake dragon animal mushussu until the time of Neo-Babylonian god Marduk.
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In c. 1808 BCE a new king takes the throne of Assur. Shamshi-Adad I is an ambitious Amorite warlord who rules until c. 1776 BCE. During his reign he rebuilds temples and introduces a pantheon of Mesopotamian deities into the Kingdom of Assyria.
Shamshi-Adad equates Ashur with southern creator god Enlil. He renovates an old temple of Ashur and replaces the god with Enlil.
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During the Middle Assyrian period (1355 - 1050 BCE), the god Ashur once more rises to power. He absorbs Enlil and his family including Ninlil, Enlil's wife and great mother goddess, and Ninurta, the son of Enlil, who later becomes a significant Assyrian deity.
The governors are now Kings, by divine right, and rule together with the god Ashur. It gets sticky when King Tukulti-Ninurta I incurs the wrath of the priests of Ashur.
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His forces sack Babylon and he destroys Babylonian temples, for which the priests have great respect. The King does not care. Tukulti-Ninurta builds a new capital about 3 km (1.8 mi) from Assur.
There he erects a glorious temple to Ashur, a grand palace, lordly homes. He gets new priests. However it's not long before his sons rebel and lay siege to the city. King Tukulti-Ninurta doesn't make it out alive.
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Ultimately, Ashur ends up back in his capital of Assur, and the new city crumbles, abandoned. As Assyrian conquest expands the empire, Ashur becomes a powerful deity in northern Mesopotamia.
His cult center stays in Assur. From there, instead of remaining a local god, Ashur goes national. He conveys the image of Father of the Gods. The King answers only to Ashur. Later he's said to be the mirror image of Ashur.
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After c. 722 BCE in the Neo-Assyrian Empire Ashur is sometimes written Anshar. Anshar is the primordial forces of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish. The epic composition stars hero-god Marduk.
It appears in more than one version. In the Assyrian Enuma Elish, Anshar is the primordial element which gives birth to Anu, oldest of the Gods.
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Anshar also creates Kishar, earth mother Goddess. Kishar is counterpart to the sky, Anu. In 689 BCE, Babylon is sacked once again. Nonetheless Ashur is revered in Uruk.
A temple there is built to Ashur under the name Anshar. Until then, despite his popularity, Ashur's only cult center is Assur.
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His worship continues through the final collapse of the Assyrian Empire in the 7th century CE attributed to the Persians. Even then, Ashur remains a popular local god.
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