Ashur-resh-ishi II
King of Assyria
King of the Middle Assyrian Empire
Reign972–967 BC
PredecessorAshur-rabi II
SuccessorTiglath-Pileser II
IssueTiglath-Pileser II
FatherAshur-rabi II

Aššūr-reš-iši II, inscribed maš-šur-SAG-i-ši, meaning "(the god) Aššur has lifted my head," was the king of Assyria, 971–967 BC, the 96th to be listed on the Assyrian Kinglist.[i 1][i 2] His short five-year reign is rather poorly attested and somewhat overshadowed by the lengthy reigns of his predecessor, Aššur-rabi II, and successor, Tukultī-apil-Ešarra II.

Stele of Ashur-resh-ishi II, from the Row of Stelae (Stelenreihen) at Assur, Iraq. Pergamon Museum

Biography

He succeeded his father, Aššur-rabi II, who had a long 41-year reign. He was probably fairly elderly when the accession took place. He is given in the Synchronistic Kinglist[i 3] as the counterpart of the Babylonian king Mâr-bîti-apla-uṣur (983-978 BC), the sole member of the 7th or Elamite dynasty of Babylon, although conventional chronology would suggest the subsequent king, Nabû-mukin-apli (978–943 BC), might be a more likely candidate.[1] The part of the eponym list Cc[i 4] which would have displayed his limmu officials, was at the top of column V, and is obliterated.

Apart from the references to him in later copies of the Assyrian Kinglists and in the filiation of his grandson, Aššur-dān II, the only contemporary inscriptions referring to him are from his stele[i 5] at the Stelenreihe, "row of stelae," in Aššur and in the cylinder inscription[i 6] of Bēl-ereš.[2] His stele (number 12) is simply inscribed "ṣalam of Aššur-reš-iši, king of Assyria (MAN.KUR aš-šur), son of [A]ššur-[r]abi, king of Assyria," where the term ṣalam is taken to mean "statue."[3] Bēl-eriš, the šangû-priest of the temple of the god Samnuha, in the city of Šadikanni, in the Ḫārbūr river valley region, commemorated his construction of a quay-wall for a canal during Aššur-rabi II’s reign, and the reconstruction of the temple during Aššūr-reš-iši’s, in his clay cylinder inscription recovered from Aššur.

Inscriptions

  1. ↑ Khorsabad Kinglist, tablet IM 60017 (excavation nos.: DS 828, DS 32-54), iv 10, 12.
  2. ↑ Nassouhi Kinglist, Istanbul A. 116 (Assur 8836), iv 25, 27.
  3. ↑ Synchronistic Kinglist, tablet Ass 14616c (KAV 216), iii 8.
  4. ↑ Eponym List KAV 21, tablet VAT 11254, v.
  5. ↑ Stele RIMA 2 A.0.96.1 :2.
  6. ↑ Cylinder inscription of Bēl-ereš, RIMA 2 A.0.96.2001:16.

References

  1. ↑ J. A. Brinkman (1968). A Political History of Post-Kassite Babylonia, 1158–722 B.C. Pontificium Institutum Biblicum. pp. 28–29.
  2. ↑ K. Fabritius (1998). "Aššūr-rēšī-išši". In K. Radner (ed.). The Prosopography of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, Volume 1, Part I: A. The Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. p. 213.
  3. ↑ Allison Karmel Thomason (2006). Luxury And Legitimation: Royal Collecting In Ancient Mesopotamia. Ashgate Pub Co. p. 110.

Further reading

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