Erishum I

Erišu(m) I (inscribed ^me-ri-šu, or ^mAPIN-ìš in later texts but always with an initial i in his own seal, inscriptions, and those of his immediate successors,^[1]:40 “he has desired,”^[2]) son of Ilu-šuma, was the ruler of Assyria ca. 1905-1867 BC (short chronology) or 1974–1935 BC (middle chronology),^{[nb 1]} the 33^rd to appear on the Assyrian kinglist and reigned for 40 years.^{[i 1]} He titled himself: "Aššur is king, Erišum is vice-regent"^{[nb 2]} and Išši’ak Aššur^ki, “governor of Assyria,” at a time when the small city state seems to have been controlled by an oligarchy of the patriarchs of the prominent families and subject to the “judgment of the city,” or dīn alim. The most significant event of his reign was the establishment of distant trading posts, kārum, in central Anatolia, the best known being that located at Kültepe, ancient Kaneš, as the city’s merchant family firms vigorously pursued commercial expansion.

Biography

One of two copies of the Assyrian Kinglist^{[i 2]} which include him gives his reign length as only 30 years,^[3] but this contrasts with a complete list of his eponyms, some 40, which are extant from tablets^{[i 3]} recovered at Kültepe.^[1]:3–5 These were discovered in 1948 with three other similar though fragmentary lists and two copies of an inscription of Erišum detailing the regulations concerning the administration of justice in Aššur, including the possibility of bona fide plaintiffs to obtain an attorney (rābiṣum) to represent them:

The one who talks too much in the Step Gate, the demon of ruins will seize his mouth and his hindquarters; he will smash his head like a shattered pot; he will fall like a broken reed and water will flow from his mouth. The one who talks too much in the Step Gate, his house will become a house of ruin. He who rises to give false testimony, may the [Seven] Judges who decide legal cases in [the Step Gate, give a false] decision [against him]; [may Aššur], Adad, and Bel, [my god, pluck his seed]; a place […] may they not give to him.

[The one who…] … obeys me, [when he goes] to the Step Gate, [may] the palace deputy [assist him]; [may he send] the witnesses and plaintiff (to the court); [may] the judges [take the bench] and give a proper decision [in Ašš]ur.^[4]:13

— Inscription of Êrišum I^{[i 4]}

According to Veenhof, Erišum’s reign marks the period when the institution of the annually appointed limmum, or eponym, was introduced. The Assyrian Kinglist observes of his immediate predecessors, “in all six kings [known from] bricks, whose eponyms have not been marked/found.”^[5] Following the example set by his father, he proclaimed tax exemptions, or as Michael Hudson has interpreted: "I proclaimed a remission of debts payable in silver, gold, copper, tin, barley, wool, down to chaff." This appears in an inscription on one side of a large broken block of alabaster,^{[i 5]} apparently described as a ṭuppu. The shallow depression on its top has led some to identify it as a door socket.^[6]

It was during his reign that kārums were established along trade routes into Anatolia in the lower city of Kaneš (Kültepe), and others were to follow in Amkuwa (Alisar Höyük), Ḫattuša (Boğazköy) and eighteen other locations yet to be identified, some designated warbatums, satellites of and subordinate to the kārums. Around 23,000 tablets have been found at Kaneš spanning a period of 129 years from the 30th year of Erišum’s reign through to that of Puzur-Aššur II or possibly Narām-Sîn with the earliest from level II including copies of his inscriptions. The markets traded tin (inscribed AN.NA, Akkadian: annukum), textiles, lapis lazuli, iron, antimony, copper, bronze, wool, and grain for gold and silver.

His numerous contemporary inscriptions commemorate his building of the temple for Aššur, called “Wild Bull,” with its courtyard (cattle pen?) and two beer vats and the accompanying curses to those who would use them for their intended purposes. His efforts were recalled by the later kings Šamši-Adad I, in his rebuilding dedication,^[4]:20 and Šulmanu-ašared I, who noted that 159 years had passed between Erišum’s work and that of Šamši-Adad, and a further 580 years until his own when a fire had gutted it.^[4]:84–85 He had exercised eminent domain to clear an area from the Sheep Gate to the People’s Gate to make way for an enlargement of the city wall, so that he could boast that “I made a wall higher than the wall my father had constructed.”^[4]:11 Erišum’s other civic constructions included the temple of Ištar and that of Adad.

Limmu officials by year

The annual eponym officials from the first full year of his reign until the year of his death are given with the middle chronology year.^[1]:6–10

Inscriptions

1. ↑ Khorsabad kinglist.
2. ↑ SDAS Kinglist: [^mE-ri-š] u DUMU ^mDINGIR-šum-ma, [šá li-ma-ni? -šu-ni 10] + 30 MU.MEŠ LUGAL-ta DÙ-uš.
3. ↑ KEL A (kt 92/k 193), at CDLI.
4. ↑ Tablet copies: An 201139 and An 20114.
5. ↑ BM 115689, Ass. 16850.

Notes

References