Iron-age sacrifice is oldest brain in Britain

The oldest surviving human brain in Britain, dating back at least 2000 years to the Iron Age, has been unearthed at the University of York.

Brain material showing as grey matter at the top of the head in this computer-generated scan through the skull. Dark areas are voids

Archaeologists, commissioned by the University to carry out the exploratory dig, believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering.

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.”

The find is the second major discovery during archaeological investigations on the site of the University's 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 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.