An international team of researchers have used ancient genomes, 22 new genomes from Aşıklı Höyük and Çatalhöyük, a UNESCO site, as well as published ones from Boncuklu Höyük and Barcın to study people whose burials are associated with some of the 8,000-10,000 year-old houses in Anatolia. In some villages, houses were used for burials of biological family members. But in other communities, like Çatalhöyük, many children and babies with no apparent biological kinship were buried within the same buildings. The results, published today in Current Biology, emphasize the remarkable diversity of kinship types in ancient human societies.
