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Ilu-shuma or Ilu-šūma, inscribed
DINGIR ''Dingir'' ⟨⟩, usually transliterated DIĜIR, () is a Sumerian word for 'god' or 'goddess'. Its cuneiform sign is most commonly employed as the determinative for religious names and related concepts, in which case it is not pronounced and ...
''-šum-ma'',Khorsabad copy of the ''Assyrian King List'' i 24, 26. son of Shalim-ahum was a king of Assyria in the 20th century BCE. The length of his reign is uncertain, as the ''Assyrian King List'' records him as one of the "six kings whose names were written on bricks, but whose
eponyms An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
are not known", referring to the lists of officials after which years were named. His son, Erishum I, is identified as the king who succeeded him and reigned for 40 years (or 30, depending on the copy of the Assyrian King List),Lines 27 to 28: sup>IE-r-šu dumu Iilu-šum-ma �á li-ma-nišu-ni 40 mumeš lugalta. followed by Ilu-shuma's other son, Ikunum. He titled himself "vice-regent of
Assur Aššur (; AN.ŠAR2KI, Assyrian cuneiform: ''Aš-šurKI'', "City of God Aššur"; ''Āšūr''; ''Aθur'', ''Āšūr''; ', ), also known as Ashur and Qal'at Sherqat, was the capital of the Old Assyrian city-state (2025–1364 BC), the Midd ...
, beloved of the god Ashur and the goddess
Ishtar Inanna is the List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akk ...
." The ''Synchronistic King List''''Synchronistic King List'' iv 17. records, "eighty-two kings of Assyria from Erishum I, son of Ilu-shuma, to
Ashurbanipal Ashurbanipal (, meaning " Ashur is the creator of the heir")—or Osnappar ()—was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 669 BC to his death in 631. He is generally remembered as the last great king of Assyria. Ashurbanipal inherited the th ...
, son of
Esarhaddon Esarhaddon, also spelled Essarhaddon, Assarhaddon and Ashurhaddon (, also , meaning " Ashur has given me a brother"; Biblical Hebrew: ''ʾĒsar-Ḥaddōn'') was the king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from 681 to 669 BC. The third king of the S ...
", in the concluding colophon.


Biography


Hypothesized battle and trade deals

The '' Chronicle of Early Kings'' records his contemporary as Su-abu, who was once identified with the founder of the First Dynasty of Babylon, Sumu-abum, .''Chronicle of Early Kings'', BM 26472, 37. The word "battles"Battles, ''gigam.didli''. is discernible on the subsequent, fragmentary line of the Chronicle and this has led some historians to believe Ilu-shuma may have engaged in conflict with his southerly neighbor. A brick inscription of Ilu-shuma describes his relations with the south and reads: The historian M. Trolle Larsen has suggested that this represented an attempt to lure traders from the south of Assur with tax privileges and exemptions, to monopolize the exchange of copper from the gulf for tin from the east. The cities cited therefore are the three major caravan routes the commodities would have traveled rather than campaign routes for the king.


Construction works and the memory of reigns

Ilu-shuma's construction activities included building the old temple of Ishtar, a city wall, subdivision of the city into house plots and diversion of the flow of two springs to the city gates Aushum and Wertum. Tukultī-Ninurta I recorded that he preceded him by 720 years, on his own inscriptions commemorating his construction of an adjacent Ishtar temple. From this it might be deduced that, despite later being among the "kings whose year names are not known", the reign length of Ilu-shuma was still known in the time of Tukulti-Ninurta I to be 21 years.''Cambridge Ancient History: Assyria 2060-1816 BC'', 1966, p. 22. Larsen has suggested that he may have been a contemporary of Iddin-Dagan and Ishme-Dagan of
Isin Isin (, modern Arabic language, Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq which was the location of the Ancient Near East city of Isin, occupied from the late 4th millennium Uruk period up until at ...
, which would clash with the synchronization with Sumu-abum, but make more sense given the current chronology favored.


See also

*
Timeline of the Assyrian Empire The timeline of ancient Assyria can be broken down into three main eras: the Old Assyrian period, Middle Assyrian Empire, and Neo-Assyrian Empire. Modern scholars typically also recognize an Early Assyrian period, Early period preceding the Old ...
* Early Period of Assyria *
List of Assyrian kings The king of Assyria (Akkadian language, Akkadian: , later ) was the ruler of the ancient Mesopotamian kingdom of Assyria, which was founded in the late 21st century BC and fell in the late 7th century BC. For much of its early history, Assyria was ...
* Assyrian continuity *
Assyrian people Assyrians (, ) are an ethnic group Indigenous peoples, indigenous to Mesopotamia, a geographical region in West Asia. Modern Assyrians Assyrian continuity, share descent directly from the ancient Assyrians, one of the key civilizations of Mesop ...
*
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 ...


Inscriptions


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ilu-Shuma 20th-century BC Assyrian kings