Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

ASSHUR (Place)

Ancient name of a city on the Tigris River whose habitation can be traced back to about 2500 BC. Asshur was not a large city (less than one-tenth the size of Babylon or Nineveh), but it formed the homeland and first capital of the later Assyrian kingdom.

Asshur had become a thriving city by the second millennium BC, trading with the Assyrian colony at Kanish (in modern Turkey). It reached its peak in the old Assyrian Empire under Shamshi-adad I (1813–1781 BC), who stretched his control over most of northern Mesopotamia, including Mari. His empire fell to Hammurabi of Babylon (1792–1750 BC), and Asshur entered a dark period about which little is known. When the Assyrians once again became a major power in the Near East late in the second millennium, the capital was moved away from Asshur; however, it remained the ancient holy city and the home of the Assyrian national god, Asshur.

For centuries the exact location of Asshur was unknown, but during the 19th century it was established that Qalat Shergat in Iraq was the modern location of this ancient Assyrian capital. The Germans excavated the site for a number of years prior to World War I. They uncovered a temple to Anu-adad that contained a large double ziggurat that still dominates the site today. A palace and several other buildings were also excavated. Among the literary discoveries were an Assyrian account of the Babylonian creation epic and a portion of the law code of the Assyrians.