Soft tissue preservation
for 2600 years is clearly possible so long as oxygen is eliminated.
That is well worth knowing when we plan tissue preservation for
research purposes. The interesting remaining question is the actual
state of the contained DNA. Can this information be recovered and
reused?
Even better has this
naturally acted to encapsulate DNA samples generally for far longer
periods of time? It may not be the La Brea tar pit but the results
may be comparable for the right lakes and bogs. In particular I
would take a long look at closed of natural lakes with no
circulation. In particular we have the Lake in Africa that is
saturated with CO2 and a number of deep mountain lakes in many places
that constrain circulation to the surface waters.
However something has the
displace the natural oxygen in the water. That is likely the methane
in the bogs.
What this does provide us
with a good reason to conduct deep diving operations and contained
deep lake bed sampling.
2,600-Year-Old
Brain Found in England, in Remarkably Fresh Condition
Archeologists
working in York in the United Kingdom discovered a remarkably
well-preserved human brain that was over 2,500 years old.
BY MAKINI
BRICE | AUG 17, 2012 11:54
Archeologists working
in York in the United Kingdom discovered a remarkably well-preserved
human brain that was over 2,500 years old.
Found
by UK researchers, the brain was found in a decapitated skull aged
2,684 years. The brain is the oldest found brain in Europe or Asia,
and is thought to be the best-preserved in the world.
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us:
The
finding is particularly astonishing because, even when left on a
counter in a chilled mortuary facility, brains tend to degrade
quickly into liquid. This one, however, had the consistency of tofu,
and had none of the distinctive smell so often associated with dead
corpses.
Though
it is difficult to ascertain cause of death after so many years, the
damage to the neck vertebrae was consistent with a hanging. Sonia
O'Connor and her colleagues believe that the person was hanged, and
then the skull was decapitated.
Interestingly,
the way that the body died worked against the preservation of the
brain. The separation of the head from the rest of its body would
have opened it up to immediate infection from bacteria.
But,
because the brain had been preserved in a water-logged pit free of
oxygen, either having been placed there or having fallen in, the
brain was kept fresh. Other body parts in the same environment may
not have been so well-preserved, but due to the brain's unique
properties, it was kept fresh.
Unfortunately,
while the brain's appearance has been kept fresh, the cells and
tissues have long died, though that is of course expected under the
circumstances.
The
brain belonged to a person, probably a man, in his thirties. Though
the rest of his body was not located at the site, the head of a deer
was.
The
skull was found in Heslington, Yorkshire, a suburban village in the
northeast portion of England.
The
study was published in the Journal of Archeological Science.
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