Fragments of the skull (left) and shoulder blades (right) of a woman buried at Loch Borralie, UK Rebecca Ellis-Haken
CT scans of a woman buried in Scotland around 2,000 years ago reveal distinct striations within her cranial cavity, indicating that Iron Age communities may have deliberately excised brains as part of funerary rites.
Funerary customs of the Iron Age (c. 800 BC to AD 43) remain elusive, as skeletal material from this period is scarce.
It is established that certain individuals were interred with relatives on the maternal side, and excavations at sites such as Suddern Farm and Danebury have shown that bodies were occasionally exhumed, allowed to decompose, and later reinterred.
Laura Castells Navarro of the University of York, together with her research team, re‑analyzed skeletal remains from an adult female and a teenage male interred within a low stone cairn at Loch Borralie on the north coast of mainland Scotland, originally uncovered in 2000. Both individuals died between approximately 50 BC and AD 70.
Within the woman’s cranium, the researchers identified linear striations that imply deliberate removal of the brain.
\”These incisions are too regular and linear to result from natural processes, suggesting the use of a sharp tool,\” she explains.
Adelle Bricking of Museum Wales, who was not involved in the study, remarked, \”The uniformity of these marks is striking and suggests purposeful manipulation. Moreover, if brain extraction formed part of broader mortuary practices such as intentional mummification, it would be consistent with known Iron Age rites.\”
Richard Madgwick of Cardiff University cautions, \”While the marks undeniably indicate cranial manipulation, attributing them specifically to brain extraction remains uncertain.\”
The team also observed that certain long bones, including a femur, tapered to a point, a modification that may have been intentional for tool production.
\”I believe they fractured the bone sections and fashioned them into tapered points, producing a remarkably smooth finish,\” Castells Navarro notes.
Madgwick counters that the bone modifications might simply reflect pre‑existing fractures that were later employed, akin to using animal bones to pierce leather, with the shape evolving through use. \”Nevertheless, the symbolic significance of modifying human remains cannot be dismissed,\” he adds.
Regardless of motive, the remains were reassembled and reinterred within the cairn. \”The deliberate re‑burial of the skeleton in anatomical order is striking and may suggest that the individual’s identity persisted beyond death,\” Madgwick observes.
Andrew Lamb of the University of Edinburgh notes that these findings align with a broader European phenomenon of post‑mortem bone alteration. \”While brain extraction appears unique, comparable practices such as creating rondelles—cutting bone segments to fashion amulets—are documented in southern France and Bulgaria.\”
Castells Navarro emphasizes that this research illuminates the ongoing relationship between mortuary practices and social perception of the dead in Iron Age societies.
Bricking posits that the ritual dismemberment may have served to release a spirit or to retain a connection with the departed. \”Death is not merely a burial; communities exhumed remains, curated specific elements, and reinterred them as part of a deliberate afterlife pathway,\” she explains.
Genetic analysis of the two individuals indicated a probable maternal second‑cousin relationship and linked them to Iron Age populations from Orkney (≈175 km northeast) and Applecross (≈225 km southwest).
This genetic alignment corroborates archaeological evidence of a maritime Iron Age network spanning Shetland, Orkney, and the western Scottish Isles, Lamb adds.
He suggests these groups navigated using wooden‑frame vessels covered with animal hide, reminiscent of Irish currachs or coracles: \”Suitable for rugged seafaring, though not large vessels.\”