This is the last 12,000 year old ancient brain discovered

LONDON – The human brain we are as fragile as we know. While disgusting, this fact makes the discovery of naturally preserved brain specimens thousands of years old all the more exciting.

Once thought to be extremely rare, new research challenges the notion that brains cannot be well preserved.

This suggests that we have discovered large amounts of preserved human brains, sometimes with this squishy thinking organ being the only soft tissue remaining in the cranial cavity, while the rest of the body has become skeletal.

A team led by NERC Doctoral Candidate Alexandra Morton-Hayward from Merton College, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, has successfully collected more than 4,000 preserved human brains into a global archive.

These brains came from six continents, with most being around 12,000 years old. They come from various walks of life, from Arctic explorers, European monks, to members of royal families in Egypt and Korea.

Most interesting is a subgroup of more than 1,300 brains that constitute the only remaining soft tissue among the skeletal remains. These strange objects are found in waterlogged graves, sunken shipwrecks, and warm pools.

According to Morton-Hayward, finding soft tissue of any kind at these sites was surprising. However, that is where this ancient brain resides.

These ancient brains are also the oldest in the archives, some of which date back to the last Ice Age. The explanation for its preservation may be related to environmental factors or the unique biochemistry of the brain itself. However, further research is needed to find out.

For now, this discovery may be a reminder that it’s time to start considering the human body, and our decaying remains, in a less binary way.

“Before I studied forensic anthropology, I worked for many years as an undertaker. And one thing I learned was that just as we are all different in life, we also decompose differently in death,” Morton-Hayward told IFLScience.

“There are well-established patterns we can observe (for example, biomineralized tissues, such as bones and teeth, will almost certainly survive the longest), but decay can surprise us.”

This discovery opens up new opportunities to study human brain evolution, neurodegenerative diseases, and even burial rituals in the past.

(wbs)