ASSHUR ăsh’ ər (אַשּׁ֑וּר, meaning uncertain). Name of the son of Shem, borne also by the patron deity, people, and capital city of Assyria. (See Assyria.)

The son of Shem (Gen 10:22; 1 Chron 1:17) was considered to be the founder of the Assyrian nation, whose king list names the earliest founders as tent-dwellers in the southern and western deserts (cf. Gen 10:11 KJV). The Assyrians were similarly named (Ezra 4:2; Ezek 27:23; 32:22; Hos 14:3 KJV), though sometimes the reference could equally well be to the national god Ashur of the same name (Num 24:22-24; Ps 83:8 KJV). This god’s name occurs as an element in many personal names (e.g. Ashurbanipal, Esarhaddon) and may well account for the name given to the capital city.

The ruins of Asshur (modern Qala’at Sherqat) lie c. 56 m. S of Mosul/Nineveh on the W bank of the Tigris River, bordering the great desert. Excavations by H. Rassam in 1853 and by the Deutsches Orient-Gesellschaft under R. Koldewey and W. Andrae (1903-14) reveal occupation of an archaic Ishtar temple in Sumer. levels and during the Sargonic period, after it had prob. fallen to Sargon of Agade c. 2350 b.c. About this time the city is named in Old Assyrian texts, and from that time until it fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 614 b.c. it held an important place as a religious and political center. Shamshi-Adad I built a temple to the god Enlil, while the older shrine with its distinctive twin-towered ziggurat dedicated to Anu and Adad was constantly renovated. A library of Middle Assyrian documents, including religious and legal texts collected by Tiglathpileser I 1100 b.c., is the primary literary source for this period of history. The graves of Neo-Assyrian kings and the New Year festival house built for the annual ritual outside the main city have also been uncovered.