Archaeologists perplexed to find Bronze Age burial of ritually sacrificed teens

Region’s early society likely switched often between egalitarian and hierarchical rule, study hints

Archaeologists have a discovered a strange abundance of teenagers’ remains at “one of the richest” ancient Mesopotamian grave sites, a puzzling discovery that sheds light on a five millennia old society.

The teenagers’ skeletons were unearthed at the cemetery of Basur Höyük where researchers previously uncovered evidence of “grand funerary rituals” and the burial of “spectacular” quantities of precious metals.

This grave site on the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates has perplexed scientists as it challenges the conventional understanding of the formation of the first states by humans.

Tombs unearthed here are some of the richest, even though early settlements around the region were found to be otherwise small-scale and egalitarian.

Skeletons of sacrificed adolescents found at ancient Mesopotamian tomb (Başur Höyük Research Project/Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2025)

Now, a new study published in the journal Cambridge Archaeological Journal raises further questions about the nature of these tombs due to an abundance of teenagers buried here.

“A further, puzzling feature of this cemetery is the preponderance of teenagers in the richest tombs,” scientists write in the study. Researchers conducted an anthropological study, including analysis of DNA from the skeletons buried here, presenting a more nuanced view of the tombs and this early society.

Başur Höyük is a Bronze Age community dated to between 3100 BC and 2800 BC.

Previous studies have hinted that this period corresponded to the rise of kingship in ancient Mesopotamia as part of a general trend towards the formation of some of the world’s first states and cities.

However, the discovery of burials in the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers “complicates this view in many ways”, researchers say.

“The new picture is decidedly more complex and suggests that a linear trajectory from ‘small-scale egalitarian’ to ‘large-scale stratified’ societies may simply not exist there,” scientists write.

Researchers found that the burial was the case of adolescent females, mostly between 12 and 16 years of age, brought together from different groups to carry out an extreme ritual.

“All the bodies associated with this grand burial rite were clothed in elaborate costumes, decorated with non-local materials, of which only the associated beadwork and fragments of textile survive, along with metal fastening pins, some of which reached outsized proportions for a human wearer,” scientists wrote.

Previously, such a burial would have been considered to be the case of a young royal likely buried with their sacrificed attendants based on the idea that the king was at the top of the social hierarchy, researchers say.

But new evidence that the teenagers were not biologically related to each other suggests they were brought from different areas as they belonged to the same “age set”.

Scientists suspect the sacrifice of this "age set" may represent a ritual initiation into a cult that was figuring novel political arrangements leading to later dynasties.

With this hypothesis and other evidence found at the site, the study suggests the early society switched routinely between egalitarian and hierarchical kingships, “often on a seasonal basis”.