Brain and skin remains found in Bronze Age burials

An excavation of the Tavşanlı Mound in the central Turkish province of Kütahya uncovered the skeletons of two individuals with remnants of brain and skin that have survived for 3,700 years. These are the first examples of skin found in an archaeological excavation in Turkey.

Professor Erkan Fidan, the head of the archaeology department of the Bilecik Şeyh Edebali University, told the conference that the mound is the oldest settlement in the area and that experts believe it was the capital of the region back in the Bronze Age.

He added that they believe there was a large-scale attack on the city in around 1,700 BCE and the whole city was burnt to the ground.

It was that fire that preserved remnants of soft tissues. The high heat carbonized the brain inside the skull and a section of skin between the chest and abdomen of one of the skeletons.

Habitation at Tavşanlı Mound began 8,000 years ago as a few small villages that over the course of millennia grew into an urban conglomeration and a capital city. At its peak it was one of the largest cities in western Anatolia. Excavations at the mound began in 2021 by presidential decree, and the complex project is expected to continue for three decades.

* This article was originally published here