If Ashur is to be regarded as an abstract solar deity, who was developed from a descriptive place name, it follows that he had a history, like Anu or Ea, rooted in Naturalism or Animism.  We cannot assume that his strictly local character was produced by modes of thought which did not obtain elsewhere.  The colonists who settled at Asshur no doubt imported beliefs from some cultural area; they must have either given recognition to a god, or group of gods, or regarded the trees, hills, rivers, sun, moon, and stars, and the animals as manifestations of the “self power” of the Universe, before they undertook the work of draining and cultivating the “water field” and erecting permanent homes.  Those who settled at Nineveh, for instance, believed that they were protected by the goddess Nina, the patron deity of the Sumerian city of Nina.  As this goddess was also worshipped at Lagash, and was one of the many forms of the Great Mother, it would appear that in ancient times deities had a tribal rather than a geographical significance.

If the view is accepted that Ashur is Anshar, it can be urged that he was imported from Sumeria.  “Out of that land (Shinar)”, according to the Biblical reference, “went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh."[355] Asshur, or Ashur (identical, Delitzsch and Jastrow believe, with Ashir),[356] may have been an eponymous hero—­a deified king like Etana, or Gilgamesh, who was regarded as an incarnation of an ancient god.  As Anshar was an astral or early form of Anu, the Sumerian city of origin may have been Erech, where the worship of the mother goddess was also given prominence.

Damascius rendered Anshar’s name as “Assoros”, a fact usually cited to establish Ashur’s connection with that deity.  This writer stated that the Babylonians passed over “Sige,[357] the mother, that has begotten heaven and earth”, and made two—­Apason (Apsu), the husband, and Tauthe (Tiawath or Tiamat), whose son was Moymis (Mummu).  From these another progeny came forth—­Lache and Lachos (Lachmu and Lachamu).  These were followed by the progeny Kissare and Assoros (Kishar and Anshar), “from which were produced Anos (Anu), Illillos (Enlil) and Aos (Ea).  And of Aos and Dauke (Dawkina or Damkina) was born Belos (Bel Merodach), whom they say is the Demiurge"[358] (the world artisan who carried out the decrees of a higher being).

Lachmu and Lachamu, like the second pair of the ancient group of Egyptian deities, probably symbolized darkness as a reproducing and sustaining power.  Anshar was apparently an impersonation of the night sky, as his son Anu was of the day sky.  It may have been believed that the soul of Anshar was in the moon as Nannar (Sin), or in a star, or that the moon and the stars were manifestations of him, and that the soul of Anu was in the sun or the firmament, or that the sun, firmament, and the wind were forms of this “self power”.