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HOW DID HUMAN SACRIFICE TAKE PLACE IN MESOPOTAMIA?

Human sacrifice was commonplace in ancient Mesopotamia, which is often referred to as the birthplace of western civilisation.

Evidence of the practice was unearthed in the Royal Cemetery of Ur, a lavish series of tombs that formed the resting place of powerful rulers in Mesopotamia.

As well as housing the buried royal statesperson, the tombs are also home to the bodies of courtiers, guards, musicians, handmaidens and grooms.

These palace attendants committed suicide inside the chambers as part of the burial practices.

Known as retainer sacrifice, it was originally thought their deaths were caused by poison.

However, bone evidence uncovered at the cemetery at Ur suggest palace attendants were actually killed with a sharp instrument – like a pike – speared through their skull.

The remains of a female body found at Ur had been exposed to heat before burial and treated with mercury sulphide to delay decomposition, suggesting the palace attendants’ bodies remained unburied for a long time, possible due to lengthy funerary ceremonies for the royal.

It’s unclear whether the human sacrifices were voluntary, or involuntary.

Some believe these sacrifices were made to demonstrate the sway a particular elite had over his or her flock at the time, while others believe the sacrificial killings were a ritual of fertility to the land.

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