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 challenges previous assumptions about the political structure of this ancient civilization. Traditionally, scholars believed that early Bronze Age societies in this region were governed exclusively by hierarchical monarchies (as many unquestionably were). However, these burial practices suggest a more complex and possibly egalitarian social organization, for reasons that the scientists involved in the new study explain in an article published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
- A Matter of Honor? Evidence of Brutal Child Sacrifice Surfaces in Ancient Mesopotamia
- Was Moloch really Ba’al, the Ancient God Who Demanded Child Sacrifice?
Decoding the True Meaning of Ancient Sacrificial Burials
Wengrow and his research team have been analyzing a collection of skeletons unearthed at Başur Höyük, an archaeological site located on the Upper Tigris River in southeastern Turkey. This site, once part of ancient Mesopotamia, dates back to between 3100 and 2800 BC.
Map identifying the location of Başur Höyük on the Upper Tigris River. (Wengrow, et.al/Cambridge Archaeological Journal).
A decade ago, archaeologists uncovered several stone tombs at Başur Höyük that contained an abundance of copper artifacts, beads, and textiles, indicating significant wealth and social complexity. An earlier study had examined one particular burial containing two 12-year-old children surrounded by eight individuals who had met violent deaths. The researchers initially interpreted this as evidence of an emerging state with "royal" tombs and ritual "retainer sacrifice."
However, in the new study, the researchers involved took a different approach, collecting ancient DNA samples from a separate set of skeletons for analysis. What they found out about the sacrificial victims suggests that adolescence was recognized as an important stage of life in this society, which was reflected in its sacrificial customs and burial practices.
DNA analysis of nine individuals from Başur Höyük revealed that they were not biologically related. The study also found that the majority of those tested were female and had not yet reached adulthood.
"So we are dealing with adolescents brought together, or coming together voluntarily, from biologically unrelated groups to carry out a very extreme form of ritual," Wengrow said. Despite these findings, the exact meaning behind the ritual remains elusive, and must remain so given the Bronze Age society in question left behind no written records or artistic renderings that might explain what they were doing.
Mesopotamian Societies: A Complex Picture Emerges
Previously, scholars believed that these burials reflected the presence of young royalty accompanied by their sacrificed attendants. This assumption was based on the idea that early Bronze Age societies had already developed into large, king-led states with rigid social hierarchies, and that there was little deviation to be found from this model in the Mesopotamian region.
A selection of metallic, copper grave goods from burials at Başur Höyük. (Wengrow, et.al/Cambridge Archaeological Journal).
- Why Did Early Human Societies Practice Violent Human Sacrifice?
- Divination and Omens in Mesopotamian Society
However, mounting archaeological evidence suggests that Bronze Age political systems may have been more fluid than previously thought. Societies in Mesopotamia may have alternated between hierarchical, king-centered rule and more egalitarian social structures, where decision-making was shared among the community. While hierarchy eventually rose to a position of dominance in the region as a whole, the process of societal evolution may not have been a straightforward progression.
"The idea that humans evolved to live in just one form of society almost all the time is almost certainly wrong," Wengrow said. If Başur Höyük was part of one of these more dynamic societies, then the so-called "royal" burial may actually represent a complex ritual tied to age and social roles rather than strict hereditary rule.
"Much more likely, what we see in the cemetery is a subset of a larger group, other members of which survived the ritual process and went on to full adulthood," Wengrow explained. According to the study, this larger group could be classified as an "age set."
In many egalitarian societies, leadership is earned rather than inherited, and social roles can be influenced by both age and gender. Older individuals may be valued for their wisdom, while adolescents might be recognized for their physical abilities. In the case of the Başur Höyük burials, this group of sacrificed adolescents could have been initiates in a religious cult, or casualties of inter-group conflict or competition that created both victims and survivors.
The latter suggestion is intriguing, because it could mean that some sort of Bronze Age, real-life version of ‘The Hunger Games’ was going on, where only the strongest would survive the competition and have the opportunity to bear children in the future (a ‘survival of the fittest’ dynamic in a time when life was hard). But this is only speculation, and it is possible that the reason why teenage girls were sacrificed is beyond our capacity to comprehend.
Tomb that held eight human sacrifices and the remains of two 12-year-olds from ancient Mesopotamia. (Wengrow, et.al/Cambridge Archaeological Journal).
Adolescence Mattered in the Ancient World
Few archaeological studies focus on adolescence as a significant stage of life, the researchers pointed out. The Başur Höyük burials suggest that it is crucial to examine factors related to age sets in early Bronze Age societies, to gain a more nuanced understanding of how these cultures functioned. Preconceived notions can lead to interpretations of archaeological finds that are misleading or just plain wrong, and looking at things from the perspective of age can help researchers adopt a broader and more open-minded framework of analysis.
Further research is underway to analyze the remains from Başur Höyük in greater depth.
"For now, all we can say is that many of the teenagers buried in the tombs were not local to the area of the cemetery," Wengrow said.
Wengrow explained that stable isotope analysis will be conducted to determine the geographical origins of those buried at the site, potentially offering new insights into how and why they met their tragic fates.
Top image: Aerial view of the Bronze Age site of Basur Höyük.
Source: Basur Höyük Excavation Project.
By Nathan Falde
