Britain's Oldest Brain Revealed

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The oldest surviving human brain in Britain, dating back at least 2000 years to the Iron Age, was unearthed during excavations on the site of the University of York’s campus expansion at Heslington East in 2008.

Archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust, commissioned by the University to carry out the exploratory dig, made the discovery in an area of extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, trackways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC, and they believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering.

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Staff from York Archaeological Trust excavating in the general area where the brain pit was located. To the right and centre it shows the excavation of Iron Age ditches which defined part of the farming landscape. The pit containing the skull was just to the left of these ditches, at centre left of the picture. Credit: York Archaeological Trust

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The man  had been hanged or strangled, then decapitated, and the severed head buried in a small pit. There may well have been an element of ritual to the killing.

As Finds Officer Rachel Cubitt cleaned the soil-covered skull’s outer surface, she felt something move inside the cranium. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance.

“It jogged my memory of a university lecture on the rare survival of ancient brain tissue. We gave the skull special conservation treatment as a result, and sought expert medical opinion,” she said.

York Hospital’s sophisticated CT scanner was used to produce startlingly clear images of the skull’s contents. Philip Duffey, Consultant Neurologist at the Hospital said: “I’m amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin. 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.”

Dr Sonia O’Connor, Research Fellow in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford added: “The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare. This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide.”

[Watcher of the Skies]

The man  had been hanged or strangled, then decapitated, and the severed head buried in a small pit. There may well have been an element of ritual to the killing.

As Finds Officer Rachel Cubitt cleaned the soil-covered skull’s outer surface, she felt something move inside the cranium. Peering through the base of the skull, she spotted an unusual yellow substance.

“It jogged my memory of a university lecture on the rare survival of ancient brain tissue. We gave the skull special conservation treatment as a result, and sought expert medical opinion,” she said.

York Hospital’s sophisticated CT scanner was used to produce startlingly clear images of the skull’s contents. Philip Duffey, Consultant Neurologist at the Hospital said: “I’m amazed and excited that scanning has shown structures which appear to be unequivocally of brain origin. 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.”

Dr Sonia O’Connor, Research Fellow in Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bradford added: “The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare. This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the UK, and one of the earliest worldwide.”

[Watcher of the Skies]

Rachel Cubitt, from the York Archaeological Trust, examines the remains of the brain using an endoscope. Credit: University of Bradford

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Brain material shows as dark folded matter at the top of the head in this computer-generated view into the skull. The lighter colours in the skull represent soil. Credit: York Archaeological Trust

[Watcher of the Skies]

The find is the second major discovery during archaeological investigations on the site of the University’s £500 million campus expansion. Earlier this year, a team from the University’s Department of Archaeology unearthed the skeleton of a man believed to be one of Britain’s earliest victims of tuberculosis in a shallow grave. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the man died in the fourth century late-Roman period.

Dr O’Connor admits we know very little about him, saying “We know from radiocarbon dating that he died sometime between 763 and 415 BC: at least 2,400 years ago, and possibly earlier. He was a fully grown man, aged between 26 and 45: and probably not older than 36.   We can’t tell closer than that, because we have just the skull.”

There are now plans for a team of specialists to carry out further tests on the skull. They hope to solve the mystery of why such brains survive death and burial, what this might tell us about burial practices, the nature of the burial environment and, perhaps, about the individual whose brain it was.

Learn all about the finds from Heslington East, (including evidence for a Roman victim of tuberculosis) on the campus website http://www.york.ac.uk/campus-development/expansion/archaeology/

http://www.pasthorizons.com/index.php/archives/11/2010/britains-oldest-brain