Assur

Aššur (Akkadian) (English | Ashur/Assyria, Assyrian / Aššur; Assyrian Neo-Aramaic / Ātûr ; Hebrew: אַשּׁוּר‎ / Aššûr; Arabic: آشور‎ / ALA-LC: Āshūr; Kurdish: Asûr), also known as Ashur, Qal'at Sherqat and Kalah Shergat, is a city from the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of the river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern-day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District (a small panhandle of the Saladin Governorate).

The city was occupied from the mid-3rd millennium BCE (c. 2600–2500 BCE) to the 14th century, when Timur conducted a massacre of its Assyrian population. The site of Assur is a World Heritage Site and was placed on the list of World Heritage Sites in danger in 2003, in part due to the conflict in that area and also due to a proposed dam that would flood part of the site. It is about 40 miles south of the former Nimrud and 60 miles south of Nineveh.

History of research

Exploration of the site of Assur began in 1898 by German archaeologists. Excavations began in 1900 by Friedrich Delitzsch, and were continued in 1903–1913 by a team from the German Oriental Society led initially by Robert Koldewey and later by Walter Andrae. More than 16,000 tablets with cuneiform texts were discovered. Many of the objects found made their way to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Assuras

Assuras, sometimes given as Assura and even shortened to Assur (not to be confused with the Assyrian capital Ashur), was a town in the Roman province of Proconsular Africa.

Ruins of its temples and theatres and other public buildings are at Henchir-Zenfour.

Bishopric

At an early stage Assuras became the centre of a Christian diocese. Records are extant of the names of seven of its bishops. The first of these is Fortunatianus. He was deposed because of defecting from the Catholic faith in the Decian persecution. Saint Cyprian of Carthage speaks of him in a letter that he wrote to the Christians of Assuras in about 252, which shows that he tried to recover the see from which he had been driven. He was replaced by Epictetus, who died before 256, the year in which his successor Victor took part in a council at Carthage convoked by Cyprian to deal with the problem of the lapsi.

Praetextatus was at the council held at Cabarsussi in 393 by a breakaway group of Donatists led by Maximianus and signed its acts. The participants were condemned in the following year by a council that the main Donatist body, which recognized Primianus as Bishop of Carthage, held at Bagai.Saint Augustine says Praetextatus was one of the twelve bishops who consecrated Maximianus as Bishop of Carthage.

Ashur (disambiguation)

Ashur or Assur or Asur may refer to

See also