Puzur-Ashur I (Akkadian: 𒁍𒀫𒀸𒋩, romanized: Pu-AMAR-Aš-ŠUR) was an Assyrian king in the 21st and 20th centuries BC. He is generally regarded as the founder of Assyria as an independent city-state, c. 2025 BC.[1]
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]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.[3] Inscriptions link Puzur-Aššur I to his immediate successors,[2]: 7–8 [4] who, according to the Assyrian King List, are related to the following kings down to Erišum II.[2]: 14
Puzur-Ashur I's successors bore the title Išši’ak Aššur, vice regent of Assur, as well as ensí.[5]
^Barbara Cifola (1995). Analysis of variants in the Assyrian royal titulary from the origins to Tiglath-Pileser III. Istituto universitario orientale. p. 8.
