article_snippet: One of the oldest human brains ever to be discovered was probably preserved for more than 2,000 years thanks to mud, archaeologists claim.
article_snippet: The intact Iron Age organ was discovered inside a decapitated skull in York seven years ago and since then experts have conducted tests to explain how the tissue could have stood the test of time.
article_snippet: Tests have revealed that the brain and other remains are 2,600 years old and have survived because the head was buried in a sealed clay pit devoid of oxygen, soon after its owner’s death.
article_snippet: The oldest human brain ever to be discovered, was probably preserved for over 2,000 years thanks to mud, archaeologists claim.
article_snippet: The intact Iron Age organpictured) was discovered inside a decapitated skull in York seven years ago and since then experts have conducted tests to explain how the tissue could survive .
article_snippet: Rachel Cubitt, the Collection Projects Officer said: ‘I peered through the hole at the base of a normal skull to investigate and to my surprise saw a quantity of bright yellow spongy material.
article_snippet: An archaeologist at the University of Bradford confirmed the tissue was brain and experts from York Hospital’s Mortuary brain and experts from York Hospital’s Mortuary were able to remove the top of a normal skull in order to reveal the astonishingly well-preserved human brain.
article_snippet: Archaeologists first thought a skull was unremarkable, but upon closer examination, saw the 'bright yellow spongy material' which turned out to be a brain.  
article_snippet: Experts can't be certain but think that the tissue survived the ravages of time because of a mixture of a sealed clay pit and fats and proteins linking together.
article_snippet: They have now carbon dated the jaw bone to confirm the man probably lived in the 6th century BC.
article_snippet: However, the larger mystery is how the larger mystery brain was preserved naturally, when bodies buried in the ground typically rot because of a mixture of water, oxygen, as well as a temperature allowing bacteria to thrive.
article_snippet: In the case of the Heslington Brain, the outside of the head rotted as normal, but the inside was preserved.
article_snippet: This image shows archaeologists sifting through the muddy pit at the site near the University of York where the brain was found .
article_snippet: The preservation of the brain in otherwise skeletonised remains is even more astonishing but not unique. '
article_snippet: This is the most thorough investigation ever undertaken of a brain found in a buried skeleton and has allowed us to begin to really understand why a brain can survive thousands of years after all the other soft tissues have decayed.'
highlights_snippet: Since then Brain has been carbon dated and examined by experts .
  
highlights_snippet: experts believe Brain was preserved because Brain was buried in sealed clay pit .
  