Genesis 10 - Noah’s Family Tree - Ashur may have settled along the Tigris
Ashur is the second son of Shem. The names Ashur and Ashurites appear a total of 8 times in scripture. Like Elam, Ashur refers to a geographic area, though it is unclear exactly where that area is.
According to Genesis 2…
 10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Ashur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
 So, if the Tigris runs along the east side of Ashur, then Ashur should be between the Tigris and Euphrates, but right up along the Tigris, in the map below…
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But, where along the Tigris is Ashur? Verse 10 above is attempting to provide another clue, but the headwaters of Tigris and Euphrates do not appear to come from a common source. The closest to that would be that space just above the head of the Tigris. The Hebrew on the other hand, could allow a meaning suggesting the location where they merge in their approach to the Persian Gulf.
Genesis 25 tells where Ismael’s descendants lived…
 18 His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.
Note that Havilah is mentioned in Genesis 2:11 above, so we would expect the area to be somewhere in the vicinity of Tigris and Euphrates, either where they divide or where they join. The extent reaches to Egypt. Now, Moses would have been writing of Egypt as he knew it, which I computed to be around the 15th century BC. Notice in the following Wikipedia map, that Egypt at the time reached up to Syria, where it would seem to kiss up alongside the Euphrates River.
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Notice in this map the city of Assur along the Tigris. Assur is also spelled Ashur. Given the seeming lack of information on Ashur, and Assur’s proximity to the Tigris, could they Assur and the Biblical Ashur be one and the same? Well, it agrees with Genesis 2:14, placing the Tigris along its eastern side. Taking the information in Genesis 25:18 at its word, it suggests that Ishmael was east of the Tigris… suggesting Havilah is east of the Tigris.
Now here is an interesting pattern. Looking back at Genesis 2:10-14, if Havilah is east of the Tigris, could it be that the four rivers named in the passage are being listed from East to West? This would place Havilah, and Pishon somewhere in modern Iran.
One theory of the Pishon River is that it is actually the Sefid River (or the Uizhun) in Iran. In the following map (from http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/iran.htm), you can see its tributary going Northeast to the Caspian Sea at Rasht. According to Wikipedia…
David Rohl identified Pishon with the Uizhun, placing Havilah to the northeast of Mesopotamia. The Uizhun is known locally as the Golden River. Rising near Mt. Sahand, it meanders between ancient gold mines and lodes of lapis lazuli before feeding the Caspian Sea. Such natural resources correspond to the ones associated with the land of Havilah in Genesis.
Finally, we have the Gihon, which should then be somewhere West of Pishon and East of the Tigris. According to Wikipedia…
The name (Hebrew Giħôn) may be interpreted as “Bursting Forth, Gushing”. As such, it can easily be identified with the Karkheh, that along with the Karun, share their deltaic marshlands with the Tigris and Euphrates in the Sumerian edin/Eden to the present day.
You can see this river in the above map joining almost where the Tigris and Euphrates join. See that 4th river joining up with them as well, just at Khorramshahr? Given how rivers can change over 1000s of years, is it possible that the Pishon is actually that river? If so, then let this be my long-winded way of suggesting that Ashur, Shem’s son, settled along the Tigris River in Assyria.
December 6th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Hmmm… After researching Eber (http://www.geocreationism.com/2010/12/05/genesis-10-noah%e2%80%99s-family-tree-eber/), it seems that Ashur may not be Assur, but is located with Eber in the Levant.
Two reasons for this. First, in Numbers 24:21-22 is a prophecy that Ashur would take the Kenites hostage. The Kenites were in the Levant, which includes the shaded region of Syria (part of Egypt at the time) in the 1st map above.
Second, in Numbers 24:24 it is prophecied that Ships would land from Cyprus and suppress Ashur. This would make sense if they are in the Levant, but not if the sailors from Cyprus had to travel all the way to the Tigris.
So, looking back at Genesis 2:14, we now have a location which seems at odds with the description of the Tigris… along the East of Ashur. There are several possibilities of course. If both locations are assumed correct, then perhaps Ashur moved? Maybe, but Moses is the author Genesis 2:14 as well as 25:18, and putting Ashur at the Levant makes Genesis 25:18 much clearer now because that verse implies Ashur is near the eastern border of Egypt… placing it clearly in the Levant.
So, I really think Ashur is in the Levant, just East of the shaded region (that represents the Northern part of 15th century BC Egypt) in the first map above.
But, there is still one more possibility. Looking again at the first map, you will see that Egypt goes all the over to the Euphrates at its northern-most region, at about the same latitude as Assur, which is over at the Tigris. All of the verses would work out if Ashur spans the distance from the Euphrates (opposite Egypt), to the Tigris (where Assur is). That makes it about 250 miles across. Looking back at where I hypothesize Havilah to be located (http://www.geocreationism.com/2010/12/05/genesis-10-noah%e2%80%99s-family-tree-havilah/), I think a large territory for Ashur, with population center near the Euphrates, would work out.
Well, I have many more territories to look at. We’ll see if this holds up.