Boiled brain found in excavations in Turkey's Seyitömer Höyük site

ISTANBUL

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A brain boiled in its skull that dates back 4000 years has been discovered in the Seyitömer Höyük site, in the western province of Kütahya.

According to Newscientist.com, the discovery and the story, now being pieced together about its owner’s last hours. If that is the case, it potentially opens way to studying brain health in prehistoric times.

Brain tissue is rich in enzymes that cause cells to break down rapidly after death, but this process can be halted if conditions are right.

Seyitömer Höyük Bronze Age settlement in western Turkey is where this brain was found. Meriç Altınöz at Haliç University in Istanbul, Turkey, who together with colleagues has been analyzing the find, says the clues are in the ground. The skeletons were found burnt in a layer of sediment that also contained charred wooden objects. Given that the region is tectonically active, Altınöz said an earthquake flattened the settlement and buried the people before fire.