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Radical ‘royals’? Burial practices at Başur Höyük and the emergence of early states in Mesopotamia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2018

Brenna Hassett  and
Haluk Sağlamtimur
Brenna Hassett*
Affiliation:
Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
Haluk Sağlamtimur
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Ege University, Erzene Mahallesi, Gençlik Caddesi, 35040 İzmir, Turkey
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Human sacrifice has long been associated with the rise of hierarchical centralised societies. Recent excavation of a large cist tomb at third-millennium BC Başur Höyük, in Turkey, shows that state formation in Mesopotamia was accompanied by a fundamental change in the value of human life within local ritual economy. Osteological analysis and study of the grave goods have identified some of the dead as human sacrifices. This was indeed a retainer burial, reflecting the emergence of stratified society at a time of instability and crisis.

Keywords

TurkeyMesopotamiaEarly Bronze Ageretainer burialsacrifice
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 363 , June 2018 , pp. 640 - 654
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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