Kishsassu or Kishassu () was a city in ancient

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , ''māt Aššur'') was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization that existed as a city-state from the 21st century BC to the 14th century BC and eventually expanded into an empire from the 14th century BC t ...

. It is mentioned tablets found in

Nineveh Nineveh ( ; , ''URUNI.NU.A, Ninua''; , ''Nīnəwē''; , ''Nīnawā''; , ''Nīnwē''), was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul (itself built out of the Assyrian town of Mepsila) in northern ...

, dating from the 7th-century BCE.: " ..All come from Nineveh (Kouyundjik) and belong to the category of 'oracle requests' addressed to the Mesopotamian sun god, Shamash. The city was subject to invasion by the Median chieftain, Kashtariti.: "Will within this period, Kashtariti, together with his soldiery, will the army of the Gimirrites, the army of the Medes, will the army of the Man-neans, or will any enemy whatsoever succeed in carrying out their plan, whether by strategy (?) or by main force, whether by the force of weapons of war and fight or by the ax, whether by a breach made with machines of war and battering rams or by hunger, whether by the power residing in the name of a god or goddess, whether in a friendly way or by friendly grace, or by any strategic device, will these aforementioned, as many as are required to take a city, actually capture the city Kishsassu, penetrate into the interior of that same city Kishsassu, will their hands lay hold of that same duty Kishsassu, so that it falls into their power? Thy great divine power knows it." Some scholars suggest Kishsassu can be identified as the city of Kishisim (or Kishisu).

Sargon II Sargon II (, meaning "the faithful king" or "the legitimate king") was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 722 BC to his death in battle in 705. Probably the son of Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727), Sargon is generally believed to have be ...

subdued this town, calling it ''Kar-Nergal'' or ''Kar-Ninib''.: "Kishshashshu is very probably the same as Kishisim or Kishisu, the town which Sargon subdued, and which he called Kar-nergal or Kar-ninib (''Inscription des Fastes'' 11. 59, 60, ''Inscription of the Pavement of the Gates'', iv. 1. 16, ''Stele of Larnaka'', col. i. 1. 30, cf. Winckler, ''Die Keilschrifttexte Sargons'', vol. i. pp. 108, 109, 146, 147, 176, 177), and which is mentioned in the neighbourhood of Farsuasb, Karalla, Kharkhar, Media, and Ellipi (cf. the illustration above p. 241 of the present work)

Gaston Maspero Sir Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (23 June 1846 – 30 June 1916) was a French Egyptologist and director general of excavations and antiquities for the Egyptian government. Widely regarded as the foremost Egyptologist of his generation, he be ...

believes the city was located in the Gavê-Rud basin, while Adolf Billerbeck identifies Kishsassu as the ruins of Siama in the "upper valley of Lesser Zab".: "I think that it would be in the basin of the Gavê-Rud; Billerbeck places it at the ruins of Siama in the upper valley of the Lesser Zab (''Das Sandschak Suleimania'', pp. 97, 98).

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* * * {{refend Ancient Assyrian cities