Would you believe that this charred chunk is one of the world's oldest preserved human brains? Well, you should. Because it is. Archaeologists in western Turkey uncovered four human skeletons in a burial mound a few years ago, which they say date back 4,000 years, to the Bronze Age. The researchers could see the brains through cracks in the skulls, which appeared to have been burned, along with the rest of the skeletal remains and other wooden objects around them. Burning is generally destructive to living remains, but in the case of the brain pictured here, it is actually the reason it was so well preserved. New Scientist described how some putative blaze preserved the brains:
The flames would have consumed any oxygen in the rubble and boiled the brains in their own fluids. The resulting lack of moisture and oxygen in the environment helped prevent tissue breakdown.
The burned ...
