Brain and skin remains found in Bronze Age burials

Excavations at the Tavsanli Mound in the central Turkish province of Kutahya have uncovered two human remains with brain and skin remnants that are 3,700 years old. These are the first skin samples ever found in archaeological excavations in Turkey.

Professor Erkan Fidan, head of the Archaeology Department at Bilecik Seh Edebali University, told the conference that the mound is the oldest settlement in the area and experts believe it was the capital of the region during the Bronze Age.

He added that they believe the city was attacked on a massive scale around 1700 BC and the entire city burned down.

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

Human habitation at the Tafsanli Mound began 8,000 years ago with a few small villages, which gradually developed into an urban cluster and capital over the millennia. In its heyday, 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 last three decades.