Browsing by Author "Hassett, Brenna"

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    Inequality at the Dawn of the Bronze Age: the Case of Başur Höyük, a Royal Cemetery at the Margins of the Mesopotamian World
    (Cambridge Univ Press, 2025) Wengrow, David; Hassett, Brenna; Saglamtimur, Haluk; Marsh, William; Brace, Selina; Birch, Suzanne E. Pilaar; Barnes, Ian
    On the upper reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates, archaeologists encounter evidence that challenges conventional understandings of early state formation as a transition from 'small-scale, egalitarian' to 'large-scale, stratified' societies. One such location is the Early Bronze Age cemetery of Ba & scedil;ur H & ouml;y & uuml;k, which presents evidence of grand funerary rituals-including 'retainer burials' and spectacular deposits of metallic wealth-in an otherwise small-scale, egalitarian setting. A further, puzzling feature of this cemetery is the preponderance of teenagers in the richest tombs. Here we describe the combined results of archaeological and anthropological analysis at Ba & scedil;ur H & ouml;y & uuml;k, including ancient DNA, and consider the challenges they pose to traditional accounts of early state formation.