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Oldest-Known Human Brain Discovered
Smivs writes "The BBC report that archaeologists have found what could be Britain's oldest surviving human brain.
The team, excavating a York University site, discovered a skull containing a yellow substance which scans showed to be shrunken, but brain-shaped.
Brains consist of fatty tissue which microbes in the soil would absorb, so neurologists believe the find could be some kind of fossilised brain.
More tests will now be done to establish what it is actually made of.
The skull was discovered during an exploratory dig at Heslington Eastin, an area of extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, trackways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC."
What the heck? The brain isn't *dead*!?!?!?
-- dnl
It's not fossilized, it just belongs to a [$PROFESSION|$POLITICAL_PARTY].
Now, can I have it back?
its fruitcake
its hard to tell the difference without a good sniff
and besides, if you wanted to make sure it wasn't trotted out again for another christmas, wouldn't you hide it some place disageeable and avoidable like a skull too?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Sincerely
York University
Oldest brain? Fossilized? I wouldn't even know where to begin.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Leave it alone! We don't want to rouse the oldest known zombie!
This guy's the limit!
Let's just hope it was "fast fossilized."
Cue the Zombie jokes now...
Mmmmmm... brain jerky!
28 centuries later? I just got a really bad feeling about that in my stomach. After Reign Of Fire, that title is possible....
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Some mornings I wake up and after opening a book and looking at the text, I get suspicious that someone has stolen my brain when I was sleeping and replaced it with a shrunken, but brain-shaped substance. Coffee usually inflates it again. Where do I apply as an archaeological object?
Ezekiel 23:20
I think we found the owner.
I didn't know Larry King had ever even been to the UK.
df -h
When I read the title I thought this was going to be another McCain joke.
"I don't have to think. I only have to do it. The results are always perfect, but that's old news." - Meat Puppets
I thought the McCain jokes would be done with after the election.
FTFA:
The archaeologists believe the skull, which was found on its own in a muddy pit, may have been a ritual offering.
Perhaps we should do the same for our U.S. banking and automotive executives who can't manage their companies properly.
Instead of a multi-million dollar golden parachute we take their heads and throw them into the nearest bog.
What?
Anyone else find it fitting that the icon for the Science section is Einstein?
As a student of York University I would've thought I'd have heard of such a place. Instead, we have the much less weirdly names Heslington East, where first year archeology excavate stuff for half a year. And second year archeology students bury same stuff in the other half of the year.
Bloviating troll bloviates.
"The skull was discovered during an exploratory dig at Heslington Eastin, an area of extensive prehistoric farming landscape of fields, trackways and buildings dating back to at least 300 BC."
Wait, when did 300 BC become prehistoric?
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
How about a 3200 year old mummy brain?
warning: pdf link http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/reprint/189/2/W105.pdf
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Fact: My roommate's dog has brain-shaped droppings.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Anyone else reminded of the episode of Family Guy where Peter digs up the native-american skull?
Before we know it, half of europe is gonna be stuck in Meg's ass
We tend to see what we want to see, and explain away unwanted data.
umm, so yeah...
TorsoWoman: Not PEEEpuhl... BRAAAINS-suh... (spine tapping on table)
Mortician, quizzically: Why do you eat... brains?
TW: It makes the PAIN go AWAY...
M: baffled: Pain? What pain is that?
TW: The PAIN of BEING DEAD...
M: Hwuh, I guess it HURTS to be DEAD...
TW: I.. can feel myself rotting... away... (moans) Brains, brains brains brains brains......(spine tapping on table, rapidly)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Next they will say it belongs to Piltdown man!
Larry King?
As TFA says, "The skull was discovered in an area of extensive prehistoric farming".
The high correlation between the emerge of cultivation and early experimentation with fermentation, especially in Celtic societies, is well documented.
Additional evidence from TFA in that the site was a York University site and that the subject had no skin on the skull supports the hypothesis that the subject was an early British university student of the skinhead genre who consumed a fatal quantity of alcohol, pickling his brain.
While this may be the oldest brain in Britain, (at 300 BC) it's not the world's oldest by a long shot. The oldest intact brains in the world come from paleo-indian skulls found in an anoxic sinkhole in Florida. Discovered by freshwater divers, archeologists were shocked to find soft brain tissue almost 9000 years old within some of the skulls. These unique brains had shrunk to half their normal size, but were otherwise intact, with easily recognizable neurons and clone-able DNA. Some brain tissue also survives in approx 30% of the crania of the Chinchurro mummies (dating from 1800BCE-5000BCE).