March
28
/ 2025
Five thousand years ago, Bronze Age societies in Mesopotamia constructed elaborate stone tombs filled with remarkable grave goods and evidence of human sacrifice on a significant scale. While the purpose of these rituals remains a mystery, the results of a recent study of skeletal remains found at a site known as Başur Höyük in Turkey offer a compelling clue: the majority of those sacrificed were adolescent females. "The fact that they are mostly adolescents is fascinating and surprising," David Wengrow, a professor of comparative archaeology at University College London, told Live Science. "It highlights how little thought scientists and historians have really given to the importance of adolescence as a crucial stage in the human life cycle." This discovery also
