The Puzzling Case of the 2,600-Year-Old Heslington Brain
In a time period ranging from 673 BC to 482 BC, within what is now East Heslington York, a man of unknown origins met a grim fate: he was hanged and beheaded in what appeared to be a ritualistic manner. His head was then placed face down into a pit and promptly interred. Was this individual a lawbreaker executed by the community's tribal systems, or perhaps a sacrificial offering to the deities they worshipped?
Such rituals were not uncommon in the Bronze and early Iron Age of Europe. Sacrifice and beheading were practices intended both to satisfy the gods and to instill terror in surrounding enemies.
The severed heads and bodies of the deceased were often utilized by ancient British and Celtic peoples as markers near waters they deemed holy. In subsequent periods, these heads served as macabre trophies for warriors and leaders, visual testimonies of their martial successes, and the chilling gaze of the sacrificed looking back at them with hollow, bony sockets.
In 2008, the remains of an Iron Age man were unearthed in a sodden pit at the Heslington site in North Yorkshire, UK. His skull, stained a deep color and oriented face down, led excavators to suspect he was the victim of a ritualistic slaying. His identity had been lost to time, but his remains—particularly his skull, neck, and astonishingly preserved brain—would soon astonish the archeological community.
In the unique instance of this man, found face down in a submerged pit, was his end the result of a ritualistic act? What led to his decapitation? And what unusual circumstances resulted in the preservation of his brain?
Brief Cultural Context Surrounding the Heslington Man's Era
During the Iron Age in Britain (800 BC - 100 AD), those who were chosen for sacrifice were typically either criminals or war captives. It was uncommon for free individuals to be subjected to such fates. The bodies of those sacrificed were often submerged face down, similar to the northwest's Lindow bog bodies.
Instances like the skull of an Iron Age woman discovered at the Sowy River in Somerset led archaeologist Richard Bunning to posit her death as a specific ritual act, with her skull intentionally placed in a water-bound location. Ancient Britons believed that bodies of water served as gateways to other worlds, perhaps inhabited by their gods.
But concerning the Heslington man, who was hanged and then beheaded, only his head was interred. Was his situation also ritualistic in nature?
According to researcher Ian Armit from the University of Leicester, the human head was deeply symbolic of fertility, power, gender, and societal status throughout Iron Age Europe. The ritual of head removal and preservation is supported by classical literature, suggesting a Pan-European “head cult” that was thought to underpin a unified Celtic culture in antiquity (Armit, 2012).
Ancient Celts were known to embalm their enemies' decapitated heads for display purposes, as recounted by Greek historians Diodorus and Strabo. They noted that Celts would preserve the heads in cedar oil.
Greek writings detail how the Celts embalmed the heads of foes killed in combat, displaying them by their homes, alongside the enemies' weapons.
Archaeological digs in Le Cailar, France, at a 2,500-year-old town by the Rhone River, found numerous skulls among weapons from the 3rd century BC. Le Cailar, a Celtic settlement, likely exhibited these heads until its desertion around 200 BC.
Researchers theorized that these heads served not as warnings to intruders but as awe-inspiring sights for local Celts. Discoveries showed that pinaceae oil was applied to preserve the skulls.
While 'trophy heads' were significant in Iron Age European cultures, the Heslington skull showed no signs of such preservation practices. This leads to the enigma of how the man's brain remained preserved.
Archaeological Discovery of The Heslington Skull
In August 2008, Mark Johnson from the York Archaeological Trust stumbled upon a human skull with an unnatural hue at the A1 site in Heslington East, York, UK. The excavation, dating to August 2008, unearthed not only the skull but also animal bone fragments.
The site further divulged remnants of ancient water channels and ditches, resonating with the 2,500-year-old prehistoric era. These waters from natural springs had been harnessed into wells, encased with wicker, a practice spanning from the Bronze to the Middle Iron Age.
The southern excavation zone revealed pits with traces of regular use, possibly for rituals extending from the Bronze Age into early Roman times, as indicated by scorched stones.
Additional finds included the headless carcass of a red deer in an old riverbed and an untouched red deer antler within an Iron Age ditch. However, the discovery that captivated all was the inverted, darkened human skull at site A1, nestled in a damp, dark brown, organic-rich, soft sandy clay.
Upon closer examination, the skull displayed signs of violent death, with fractures and nine precise cut marks from thin-bladed instruments on the neck vertebrae, suggesting decapitation after hanging.
Embedded within the cranium lay an unexpected mass, a stark contrast to the surrounding sediment. It was the brain, remarkably preserved, prompting a thorough investigation by Dr. Sonia O’Connor and her multi-disciplinary team.
Scientific Analysis of Heslington’s Brain
Dr. O’Connor's group identified the skull as male, aged 26 to 45, with no apparent signs of disease. The accompanying vertebrae bore evidence of hanging, followed by decapitation with clean cuts.
The brain, despite its shrunken state, remained within the skull. Its preservation was miraculous, thanks to the anoxic conditions of the soil and the quick burial that staved off bacterial contamination due to the absence of blood.
Remarkably, DNA sequencing of the brain material revealed a close match to Haplogroup J1d, typically associated with the Tuscany region and the Near East, a lineage not previously recorded in Britain.
The story of the Heslington man, pieced together from archaeological and forensic studies, poses lingering questions about the circumstances and reasons behind his peculiar burial.
The Study of the Heslington Brain Continues
While initial studies have shed light on his age, sex, and ancestral origins, further research is necessary to uncover the full story of his death. Was it a ritual killing, an execution, or something else?
Historical practices of the Celts, known for displaying the severed heads of enemies or prisoners, suggest a potential context for his demise. However, the lack of embalming and immediate burial indicates his head may not have been intended for display.
Instead, his face-down burial in a waterlogged pit aligns with the Iron Age belief in watery gateways to the afterlife. Writings from Greek and Roman historians offer fragmented insights into such rituals, though their accounts carry inherent biases.
The Heslington man's fate might have been that of a revered sacrifice, or he might have been a stranger chosen for a specific ritualistic purpose. His head, placed downward, could symbolize his passage to another realm.
As investigations proceed, it is hoped that new discoveries will further illuminate the life and death of the Heslington man, whose brain has endured through millennia to tell his tale.
Top image: The Heslington skull and brain. Source: Top 5 Scary Videos / YouTube.
By B.B. Wagner
References
Armit, I. 2012. Headhunting and the body in Iron Age Europe. Research Gate. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287236297_Headhunting_and_the_body_in_Iron_Age_Europe
Correia, E., Correia, F., Dorling, K. O’Connor, S., and Gardner, P. 2010. Analysis of the Bronze Age Heslington Brain by FTIR Imaging and Hierarchical Cluster Analysis. University of Manchester. [Online] Available at: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/33424182/FULL_TEXT.PDF
Edwards, H., Ali, E., and O’Connor, S. 2012. The Heslington brain: a Challenge for analytical Raman spectroscopy. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. [Online] Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jrs.4049
Garner, D. 2011. Scientists trace violent death of Iron Age man. University of York news. [Online] Available at: https://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2011/research/iron-ge-man/
Knapton, S. 2018. Iron Age skull found in Somerset could be linked to ancient head cult. The Telegraph. [Online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/01/22/iron-age-skull-found-somerset-could-linked-ancient-head-cult/
Nature. 2018. Ancient Celts embalmed enemy heads as trophies. [Online] Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07375-0
O’Conner, S., Ali, E., Al-Sabah, S., and Anwar, D. 2011. Exceptional Preservation of a Prehistoric human Brain from Heslington Yorkshire, UK. Journal of Archaeological Science. [Online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257154507_Exceptional_Preservation_of_a_Prehistoric_Human_Brain_from_Heslington_Yorkshire_UK
interesante artículo
Fascinating!