Erishum I
Išši’ak Aššur
Line-drawing of a seal of Erishum I from Kültepe. The seated figure is believed to be the god Ashur, with Erishum being the figure furthest to the left being led towards him.[1]
King of Assur
Reign	c. 1974–1935 BC[2]
Predecessor	Ilu-shuma
Successor	Ikunum
Born	20th century BCE
Died	19th century BCE
Father	Ilu-shuma

Erishum I or 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,^[3]: 40 “he has desired,”^[4]) c. 1974–1935 BCE (middle chronology),^{[nb 1]} son of Ilu-shuma, was the thirty-third ruler of Assyria to appear on the Assyrian King List. He reigned for forty years.^{[i 1]} One of two copies of the Assyrian King List^{[i 2]} which include him gives his reign length as only 30 years,^[5] but this contrasts with a complete list of his limmu, some 40, which are extant from tablets^{[i 3]} recovered at Karum Kanesh.^[3]: 3–5 He had titled himself both as, "Ashur is king, Erishum is vice-regent"^{[nb 2]} and the, “Išši’ak Aššur”^ki (“steward of Assur”), at a time when Assur was controlled by an oligarchy of the patriarchs of the prominent families and subject to the “judgment of the city”, or dīn alim. According to Veenhof, Erishum I’s reign marks the period when the institution of the annually appointed limmu (eponym) was introduced. The Assyrian King List observes of his immediate predecessors, “in all six kings known from bricks, whose limmu have not been marked/found”.^[6]

Biography

As Assur's merchant family firms vigorously pursued commercial expansion, Erišum I had established distant trading outposts in Anatolia referred to as karums. Karums were established along trade routes into Anatolia and included: Kanesh, Ankuwa, Hattusa, and eighteen other locations that have yet to be identified, some of which had been designated as “warbatums” (satellites of and subordinate to the karums') The markets traded in: tin (inscribed AN.NA, Akkadian: annukum), textiles, lapis lazuli, iron, antimony, copper, bronze, wool, and grain, in exchange for gold and silver. Around 23,000 tablets have been found at Kanesh spanning a period of 129 years from the thirtieth year of Erishum I’s reign through to that of Puzur-Ashur II or possibly Naram-Sin with the earliest from level II including copies of his inscriptions. These were discovered in 1948 with three other similar though fragmentary lists and two copies of an inscription of Erishum I detailing the regulations concerning the administration of justice in Assur, including the possibility of plaintiffs to obtain a rābiṣum (attorney) 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 Assur], 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.^[7]: 13

— Inscription of Êrišum I^{[i 4]}

Following the example set by Erishum I's father (Ilu-shuma), he had proclaimed tax exemptions, or as Michael Hudson has interpreted, "Erishum 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.^[8]

His numerous contemporary inscriptions commemorate his building of the temple for Assur, called “Wild Bull” with its courtyard and two beer vats and the accompanying curses to those who would use them for their intended purposes. Erishum I’s other civic constructions included the temple of Ishtar and that of Adad. 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.”^[7]: 11 His efforts had been recalled by the later kings Šamši-Adad I,^[7]: 20 in his rebuilding dedication, and Šulmanu-ašared I, who noted that 159 years had passed between Erishum I’s work and that of Shamsh-Adad I, and a further 580 years until his own when a fire had gutted it.^{[7]: 84–85}

Limmu during Erishum I's reign

The following is a list of the annually-elected limmu from the first full year of Erishum I's reign until the year of his death c. 1935 BC (middle chronology):^{[3]: 6–10}