Ashur (god) A Neo-Assyrian "feather robed archer" figure, symbolizing Ashur.
The right hand is extended similar to the Faravahar figure, while the left hand holds a bow instead of a ring (9th or 8th century BC relief). Ashur (also, Assur, Aššur; written A-šur, also Aš-šùr) is an East Semitic god, and the head of the Assyrian pantheon in Mesopotamian religion, worshipped mainly in the northern half of Mesopotamia, and parts of north east Syria and south east Asia Minor which constituted old Assyria. During the various periods of Assyrian conquest, such as the Assyrian Empire of Shamshi-Adad I (1813-1750 BC), Middle Assyrian Empire (1391-1056 BC) and Neo-Assyrian Empire (911-605 BC), the Assyrians did not require conquered peoples to take up the worship of Ashur; instead, Assyrian imperial propaganda declared that the conquered peoples had been abandoned by their gods.
List of Assyrian kings. Assyria. Overview map of the Ancient Near East in the 15th century BC (Middle Assyrian period), showing the core territory of Assyria with its two major cities Assur and Nineveh wedged between Babylonia downstream (to the south-east) and the states of Mitanni and Hatti upstream (to the north-west).
Assyria was a major Semitic kingdom, and often empire, of the Ancient Near East, existing as an independent state for a period of approximately nineteen centuries from c. 2500 BC to 605 BC, spanning the Early Bronze Age through to the late Iron Age. For a further thirteen centuries, from the end of the 7th century BC to the mid-7th century AD, it survived as a geo-political entity, for the most part ruled by foreign powers, although a number of small Neo-Assyrian states arose at different times throughout this period. Centered on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia(Iraq), the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times. Names[edit]