View source for Puzur-Ashur I

{{Short description|Assyrian king}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Puzur-Ashur I
| title        = [[List of Assyrian kings|Išši’ak Aššur]]
| reign        = {{circa}} 2025 BC – unknown
| birth_date   = 21st century BCE
| birth_place  = [[Assyria]] (Modern-day [[Iraq]])
| death_date   = 1970 BCE
| death_place  = [[Assyria]] (Modern-day [[Iraq]])
| burial_place = [[Assur]]
| predecessor  = [[Akiya (Assyrian king)|Akiya]] (?)
| successor    = [[Shalim-ahum]]
| occupation   = [[sovereign]]
}}
'''Puzur-Ashur I''' ({{langx|akk|{{cuneiform|𒁍𒀫𒀸𒋩}}|Pu-AMAR-Aš-ŠUR}}) was an [[Assyrian people|Assyrian]] king in the 21st and 20th centuries BC. He is generally regarded as the founder of Assyria as an independent city-state, {{Circa}} 2025 BC.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Aubet|first=Maria Eugenia|author-link=María Eugenia Aubet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Li66Bd4QZD4C|title=Commerce and Colonization in the Ancient Near East|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=978-0521514170|location=Cambridge|pages=276}}</ref>
He is in the [[Assyrian King List]] and is referenced in the inscriptions of later kings (his son and successor [[Shalim-ahum]] and the later [[Ashur-rim-nisheshu]] and [[Shalmaneser III]].)<ref name=grayson>{{cite book | title = Assyrian Royal Inscriptions, Volume 1 | author = Albert Kirk Grayson | publisher = Otto Harrassowitz | year = 1972 }}</ref>{{rp|6,8,12,15}} These later kings mentioned him among the kings who had renewed the city walls of [[Assur]] begun by [[Kikkia]].<ref name=CAH>[[Hildegard Lewy]], "Assyria c. 2600-1816 B.C.", ''Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 1, Part 2: Early History of the Middle East'', 729-770, p. 746-747.</ref>
Puzur-Ashur I may have started a native Assyrian dynasty that endured for eight generations until [[Erishum II]] was overthrown by the Amorite [[Shamshi-Adad I]].{{citation needed|date=May 2015}} [[Hildegard Lewy]], writing in the ''[[Cambridge Ancient History]]'', rejects this interpretation and sees Puzur-Aššur I as part of a longer dynasty started by one of his predecessors, [[Sulili]].<ref name=CAH/> Inscriptions link Puzur-Aššur I to his immediate successors,<ref name=grayson />{{rp|7–8}}<ref>{{cite book | title = Assyrian Rulers. Volume 1: 1114 – 859 BC | author = Albert Kirk Grayson | year = 2002 | pages = 14 }}</ref>  who, according to the Assyrian King List, are related to the following kings down to Erišum II.<ref name=grayson />{{rp|14}}
Puzur-Ashur I's successors bore the title Išši’ak Aššur, vice regent of Assur, as well as ''ensí''.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Analysis of variants in the Assyrian royal titulary from the origins to Tiglath-Pileser III | author = Barbara Cifola | publisher = Istituto universitario orientale | year = 1995 | page = 8 }}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|Asia}}
* [[Timeline of the Assyrian Empire]]
* [[Early Period of Assyria]]
* [[List of Assyrian kings]]
* [[Assyrian continuity]]
* [[Assyria]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{S-start}}
{{Succession box
| title = ''[[List of Assyrian kings|Išši’ak Aššur]]''
| before = [[Akiya (Assyrian king)|Akiya]] (?)
| after = [[Shalim-ahum]]
| years = 2025–? BC
}}
{{S-end}}
{{Assyrian kings}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puzur-Ashur I}}
[[Category:21st-century BC Assyrian kings]]
[[Category:20th-century BC Assyrian kings]]
{{ANE-bio-stub}}