Rankin lecture 2026
The role of human sacrifice and massacre in the period of early states; radical death at Başur Höyük on the edge of Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC with Dr Brenna Hassett, University of Central Lancashire
Time and date: 12th February 5pm (for 5.15 start)
Location: Central Teaching Hub, lecture room D.
Followed by a reception from 6.30 pm.
This lecture will reflect on discoveries dated to the late 4th and early 3rd millennium period at the site of Başur Höyük, located near modern-day Siirt, Türkiye. Excavations led by Dr Haluk Sağlamtimur and team for over a decade revealed an extensive complex of stone cist tombs with clear distinctions between individuals buried within the tombs, and those deposited alongside them with other funerary paraphernalia. At the tail end of this sequence, a mass grave was discovered with an incredible quantity of human remains, with subsequent intensive excavation revealing that more than 60 individuals had been simultaneously interred in a very small pit. The anthropology of these very different modes of death will be considered in the light of the changing political, economic, and social organisation of the Mesopotamian region.
Brenna is a lecturer in forensic osteology and archaeology at University of Central Lancashire. Her research focuses on childhood, health, and growth in the past. Active research areas include dental anthropological approaches to understanding early development, health and growth in the transition to sedentary and agricultural living, and the history and practice of archaeology. She has written books for popular audiences on bones and teeth including 'Built on Bones: 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death' and 'Growing Up Human: the Evolution of Childhood'. She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and is also 1/4 of Team TrowelBlazers, a project advocating for equality and the recognition of women's contributions to the digging sciences.