Ashur

The name of the city Ashur (Assyria) was encountered by researchers in many cuneiform texts, but for years, one by one under the spades of archaeologists other cities of Assyria emerged from non-existence - Nineveh, Dur-Sharrukin, Kalah - and the sacred Ashur remained a mystery.

The name of the city Ashur (Assyria) was encountered by researchers in many cuneiform texts

The circle of searches led the researchers to the deserted tract Kalat Shergat, located in the wide bend of the Tigris, a hundred kilometers from the Iraqi city of Mosul. Mounted here a huge lonely hill has long been of interest to archaeologists. To solve it was destined to the German archaeologist Walter Andre.

In this deserted, devoid of vegetation, Walter Andre spent eleven years. The year passed year after year, and from the captivity of the sands gradually rose up the sacred Ashur...

All the kings of Assyria highly respected Ashur. It was the real sacral center of the country.

The first known king of Assyria, Shamshi Adad, was the first (circa 1813-1781 BC), according to many evidences, to be an alien conqueror who captured Ashur and tried to create his state in Upper Mesopotamia. The ancient sanctuary of the god Ashur became the core from which the first capital of Assyria grew. Ashur was located on a steep cliff hanging over the Tigris, on the west bank.

The supreme deity of the city, the "father of the gods" and ruler of the universe, was Ashur, the main priest of which was the king himself. Archaeologists have also found traces of a special cult of animals that existed here for a while. In the city, like many other civilizations of Mesopotamia, there was an ancient cult of a bull-plowman. It was the bull that became the symbol of Assyria. From the skin of a ritually slaughtered black bull, a ritual tambourine was made. The sacred bull was killed so that he would give the tambourine his power and strength, after which the bulls were eaten by the priests.

The role of the main cult center in the city of Ashur was played by a high stepped ziggurat tower. To her adjoined a huge extension, stretching to the very shore of the Tiger. Before the city gates there was a New Year's temple dedicated to Ashur. His bronze gate was decorated with the figure of Ashur, going to battle against the goddess of evil Tiamat.

Excavations of Andre uncovered the dilapidated walls of the royal courtyards of the city of Ashur, lined with large alabaster plates and painted in a purple-red color with alternating black and white-black stripes in the corners. The reliefs depicting the walls depicted winged creatures with eagle or human heads, while the latter are crowned with bull horns.

Andre also found the royal tombs of the city of Ashur. Each of these underground burial chambers, monumental and at the same time simple, is covered with a domed vault and measures 7x7x4 m. However, there were no treasures in the tombs of the city - they were completely robbed in ancient times, and apparently captured by it Ashur enemies who not only carried out all the funerary utensils, but also destroyed huge stone sarcophagi.

Andre sent the fragments of the sarcophagus he collected to Berlin, where he was restored and read the inscription inscribed on it: "Ashur-razorpal Palace, the Tsar of the Universe, King Ashur, the son of Adadnirari, the king of the universe, King Ashur". The enemies of Ashur, apparently, burned the remains of the king in the sarcophagus or threw them into the Tigris.

Ashur was killed in 614 BC, captured by the Medes. Although King Ashshurnasirpal the second (883-859 BC) moved the capital to Kalach, Ashur until the very fall remained a city to which the kings of Assyria paid much attention. Its inhabitants enjoyed special rights and privileges, which were regularly confirmed by the Assyrian kings. But 614 BC marked the end of the history of this ancient city - destroyed and plundered, Ashur ceased to exist and disappeared from the pages of cuneiform chronicles.

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