copy of a votive text preserved in the British Museum. Thus from these
few lines the names of three rulers in direct succession have been
recovered, viz., Ashir-rabi, Ashir-nirari, and Ashur-rîm-nishêshu, and
also those of four earlier rulers, viz., Kikia, Shar-kenkate-Ashir,
Ishme-Dagan, and his son Ashir-nirari. Another interesting point about
the inscription is the spelling of the name of the national god of the
Assyrians. In the later periods it is always written _Ashur_, but at
this early time we see that the second vowel is changed and that at
first the name was written _Ashir_, a form that was already known
from the Cappadocian cuneiform inscriptions. The form Ashir is a good
participial construction and signifies "the Beneficent," "the Merciful
One."

Another interesting find, which was also made last year, consists of
four stone tablets, each engraved with the same building-inscription
of Shalmaneser I, a king who reigned over Assyria about 1300 B.C. In
recording his rebuilding of E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of the god
Ashur in the city of Ashur, he gives a brief summary of the temple's
history with details as to the length of time which elapsed between
the different periods during which it had been previously restored. The
temple was burned in Shalmaneser's time, and, when recording this fact
and the putting out of the fire, he summarizes the temple's history in a
long parenthesis, as will be seen from the following translation of the
extract: "When E-kharsag-kurkura, the temple of Ashur, my lord, which
Ushpia (variant _Aushpia_), the priest of Ashur, my forefather, had
built aforetime,--and it fell into decay and Erishu, my forefather,
the priest of Ashur, rebuilt it; 159 years passed by after the reign of
Erishu, and that temple fell into decay, and Shamshi-Adad, the priest
of Ashur, rebuilt it; (during) 580 years that temple which Shamshi-Adad,
the priest of Ashur, had built, grew hoary and old--(when) fire broke