The archeology world is abuzz with tests on a skull discovered in Britain which is around 2500 years old and still have brain tissue, inside---it sounds like a shrunken but pretty whole brain, in the cranium. This was not found in a peat bog, and embalming or other preservation procedures appear not to have been a factor. The head belonged to someone killed, and it was buried separately. Here are excerpts from one popular account of the situation facing scientists.
Archaeologists believe they have discovered one of the world's oldest brains that once belonged to a man in Iron Age Britain who was sacrificed in a ritual killing...'The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare,' said Sonia O'Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford. ...
'I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition.'...They discovered the solitary skull face-down in the pit in dark brown organic rich, soft sandy clay....The team is also investigating details of the man's death and burial that may have contributed to the survival of what is normally highly vulnerable soft tissue...Samples of brain material had a DNA sequence that matched sequences found only in a few individuals from Tuscany and the Near East. Carbon dating suggests the remains date from between 673-482BC.Fractures on the second neck vertebrae point to some kind of trauma before the man died and and a cluster of about nine horizontal fine cut-marks made by a thin-bladed instrument, such as a knife, can be seen on the front of the brain. Scientists are now investigating how lipids and proteins found in the brain preserved the brain and what happened between the man dying and his burial..... The preservation of the brain in otherwise skeletonised remains is even more astonishing but not unique...Dr O'Connor added: 'The hydrated state of the brain and the lack of evidence for putrefaction suggests that burial, in the fine-grained, anoxic sediments of the pit, occurred very rapidly after death. This is a distinctive and unusual sequence of events, and could be taken as an explanation for the exceptional brain preservation.'
Archaeologists believe they have discovered one of the world's oldest brains that once belonged to a man in Iron Age Britain who was sacrificed in a ritual killing...'The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare,' said Sonia O'Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford. ...
'I think that it will be very important to establish how these structures have survived, whether there are traces of biological material within them and, if not, what is their composition.'...They discovered the solitary skull face-down in the pit in dark brown organic rich, soft sandy clay....The team is also investigating details of the man's death and burial that may have contributed to the survival of what is normally highly vulnerable soft tissue...Samples of brain material had a DNA sequence that matched sequences found only in a few individuals from Tuscany and the Near East. Carbon dating suggests the remains date from between 673-482BC.Fractures on the second neck vertebrae point to some kind of trauma before the man died and and a cluster of about nine horizontal fine cut-marks made by a thin-bladed instrument, such as a knife, can be seen on the front of the brain. Scientists are now investigating how lipids and proteins found in the brain preserved the brain and what happened between the man dying and his burial..... The preservation of the brain in otherwise skeletonised remains is even more astonishing but not unique...Dr O'Connor added: 'The hydrated state of the brain and the lack of evidence for putrefaction suggests that burial, in the fine-grained, anoxic sediments of the pit, occurred very rapidly after death. This is a distinctive and unusual sequence of events, and could be taken as an explanation for the exceptional brain preservation.'
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