Our brains are the consistency of tofu, and gross as that may be to grapple with, it makes finding naturally preserved specimens that date back thousands of years all the more fascinating. Once thought to be incredibly rare, new research challenges the view that brains don’t preserve well, revealing we’ve found a great abundance of
Over 4,000 preserved human brains made it into a global archive pieced together by a team led by NERC Doctoral Candidate
Perhaps most curious of all was a subgroup of over 1,300 brains that were the only soft tissues that had survived amongst
These ancient brains also represented the oldest in the archive, some dating back as far as the last Ice Age. The explanation could be environmental, or tied to the unique biochemistry of the brain, but finding out will require further investigation.
For now, perhaps the findings are a wake-up call that it’s time to start considering the human body, and our
“Before I studied forensic anthropology, I worked for many years as an undertaker: and the one thing I learnt was that just as we’re all different in life, we decay differently in death,” said Morton-Hayward to IFLScience. “There are well-established patterns we can point to (the biomineralised tissues, like bone and teeth, are almost certain to persist the longest, for example), but
“I think that’s the main takeaway of our paper: rather than thinking of ‘the hard tissues’ and ‘the soft tissues’ as these umbrella groups, we need to consider the distinct biochemical makeup of individual organs and tissue types, which might dictate their preservation potential as much as environmental factors do. For instance, conventionally we think of the brain as invariably quick to liquefy – but this newly compiled record of more than 4,000 human brains clearly begs to differ, and rather demonstrates that, in certain circumstances, it’s the last man standing.”
Living brain tissue is pinkish like most raw meat, but give it a few thousand years or so, and it’s a very different story. Recognizing its preservation potential may even be the key to finding more samples in future, simply by remembering to look for them.
“Preserved brains – whatever their mode of preservation – are always shrunken,” explained Morton-Hayward. “They’ll fit neatly in the palm of your hand.”
“Sometimes the external surface is stained bright red, orange, or yellow with iron oxides, and they’re hard to miss; but other times they might be black and crumbly, and look more like the surrounding grave soil until you break them open and see the white matter within, and that’s one of the main points that I hope excavating archaeologists will take away from our paper: keep your eyes open, and check the skull before you wash it!”
The study is published in