Resumen de 4000-year-old brain opens window on ancient health
Shaken, scorched and boiled in its own juices, this 4000-year-old human brain has been through a lot. It may look like nothing more than a bit of burnt log, but it's one of the oldest brains ever found. Its discovery, and the story now being pieced together of its owner's last hours, offers the tantalizing prospect that archaeological remains could harbor more ancient brain specimens than thought. If that's the case, it potentially opens the way to studying the health of the brain in prehistoric times. Meric Altinoz at Halic University in Istanbul, Turkey, together with colleagues, found the skeletons burnt in a layer of sediment that also contained charred wooden objects. Given that the region is tectonically active, Altinoz speculates that an earthquake flattened the settlement and buried the people before fire spread through the rubble.
