A new examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq almost a century ago, appears to support a more grisly interpretation than before of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia, archaeologists say.
Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet a rather serene death. Instead, a sharp instrument, a pike perhaps, was driven into their heads.
Archaeologists at the University of Pennsylvania reached that conclusion after conducting the first CT scans of two skulls from the 4,500-year-old cemetery. The …

The Syrian Department of Antiquities in Tartous (Syrian city on the Coast) unearthed a mass cemetery carved in rocks near al-Basel Hospital.
The cemetery consists of  7 rooms including burial chambers with some bodies inside. There were no findings or any clay or bone fragments in those chambers, said Marwan Hassan, Director of the Department.
A hole discovered in the western wall of the cemetery, was thought to be a passage to a small hall. Another hole, opposite to this one, was found in the eastern wall leading to another hall which …