In the inscriptions of Sargon II Ashur was sometimes referred to as Anshar, and under Sennacherib it became a common systemic way to spell his name.
The inscription ended with the phrase ARAD-ZU, linking the seal with the Ur III administration,[12] but instead of a presentation scene, a triumphant figure is shown trampling on an enemy, bearing resemblance to Naram-Sin's pose on his victory stela and the lost depiction of Shu-Sin trampling on his enemy.
[12][a] The Puzur-Assur dynasty reused the presentation scene, which depicts a worshipper (the seal owner) being led by a goddess to a seated god.
[15] Outside of the city of Assur, Assyrian merchant colonies in Anatolia constructed sanctuaries to the god Ashur,[16] which included the objects like his statue and his dagger and knife/spear.
While he never set Assur as his seat of kingship, he assumed the position of king in the city and left inscriptions calling himself the viceroy of Ashur, in line with the traditional Old Assyrian inscriptions,[24] and reconstructed the temple of Ashur into a bigger complex, and the groundplan remained relatively unaltered until Shalmaneser I who added a backyard.
[31] The inscription of Puzur-Sin presents a hostile attitude towards Shamshi-Adad and his successors, claiming that they were a "foreign plague" and "not of the city of Assur."
[33] The practice where each province had to supply yearly a modest amount of food for the daily meal of Ashur, which ideologically demonstrated how all of Assyria was to jointly care for their god,[34] was first attested during the Middle Assyrian period.
[37] In addition to emulating the other great powers, they also adopted most of Shamshi-Adad I's royal titulature, including being the appointee of Enlil before being the viceroy of Ashur.
[40] The practice for the king’s reign to be referred with "during my priesthood" (ina šangûtīya) was also introduced during the Middle Assyrian period.
[49] Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta, constructed by the eponymous king himself (the name of the city means "quay of Tukulti-Ninurta") was explicitly stated to be a cult centre for Ashur.
[53] The Middle Assyrian practice of provincial provisions to the temple of the god Ashur remained during Sargonid Assyria.
[55] In celebrative texts, the oaths imposed on the defeated are sworn in the name of Ashur, extending to the other gods of Assyria in the late Neo-Assyrian period.
[56][b] Royal actions were said to be undertaken under the command of Ashur with the king acting as his proxy,[58] with the central mission being to expand the borders of Assyria.
[61] In Ashurbanipal's Coronation Hymn, the idea that Ashur was the true king reappeared, reflecting on an ideological discourse tracing all the way back to the Old Assyrian period.
"[66] The political and theological implications of such was that the Babylonian gods were to be adopted into the Assyrian pantheon, and the relationship of Marduk vis-a-vis Ashur (son and father) would reflect the relationship Babylonia has with Assyria, with Assyria in the politically dominant position and Babylonia holding a special position within the empire.
[75] A recent discovery in the provincial capital city of Kullania uncovered a copy of Esarhaddon's succession treaty inside a temple, next to a pedestal.
Beaulieu had suggested that it may have been introduced in the 7th century BCE by the strong pro-Assyrian party, as evidenced by the name of a qēpu known as Aššur-bēl-uṣur.
[96] A Parthian era building was also erected on the ruins of Sennacherib's akītu house following a similar ground plan, indicating the survival of the cult.
[99] He also lacks characteristics, stock epithets or a divine persona in general,[100] and no early mythology surrounding Ashur is known.
[107] A similar motif is found in the seal of the city hall, which depicts a goddess standing in front of a mountain with a bull head.
[108][109] A relief found in a well in the inner courtyard of the temple of Ashur in the city of Assur portrays a mountain god flanked by two water-goddesses.
The figure's nose and mouth were badly damaged, suggesting that it was deliberately vandalised and thrown into the well along with other debris following the conquest of the city of Assur in 614 BCE.
[110] There is good evidence to suggest that the figure in question is the god Ashur,[111] especially once you consider that the image was specifically mutilated and thrown down a well.
[113] The goat appears several times as a symbol in Assyrian cylinder seals,[114] and also in Neo-Assyrian art such as the royal pavilions of Ashurnasirpal and Shalmaneser III.
[118] However, in the Annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, the king claimed that Ashur gave him oracular consent by confirmation through an omen before each campaign.
[129] Written in the Assyrian dialect,[130] versions of the so called Marduk Ordeal Text are known from Assur, Nimrud and Nineveh.
[62] Using sceneries and language familiar to the procession of the Akitu Festival, here Marduk is instead being held responsible for crimes committed against Ashur and was subject to a river ordeal and imprisonment.
[131] Meanwhile, Marduk was being held captive, the color red on his clothes was reinterpreted to be his blood, and the case was brought forward to the god Ashur.
[132] After various alternate cultic commentaries, the Assyrian version of the Enuma Elish was recited, proclaiming Ashur's superiority.
[133] The content of the Assyrian recension of the Enuma Elish remains largely the same, except that Marduk was replaced by Ashur, written as Anshar.