Puzur-Ashur I

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]

He is in the Assyrian King List and is referenced in the inscriptions of later kings (his son and successor Shalim-ahum and the later Ashur-rim-nisheshu and Shalmaneser III.)^{[2]: 6, 8, 12, 15} These later kings mentioned him among the kings who had renewed the city walls of Assur begun by Kikkia.^[3]

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]