This Woman’s Brains Were Scooped Out and Her Bones Were Broken and Whittled in Scotland 2,000 Years Ago

Researchers say the modifications may represent a previously unknown funerary ritual in Iron Age Britain

Sarah Kuta | Daily Correspondent

June 10, 2026 5:23 p.m.

Four bones resting on a surface — Four of the woman's bones appear to have been broken and whittled. University of York

In 1998, rabbits burrowing in northern Scotland unearthed a human skull. Two years later, when archaeologists investigated the site, they discovered the remains of two individuals who died roughly 2,000 years ago during the Iron Age—an adult woman and a teenage boy.

Now, researchers have revealed that the woman’s brain was removed and several of her bones were broken and sharpened after she died. Writing in a new paper published in the journal Antiquity, researchers hypothesize the woman’s remains may have been modified as part of some previously unknown funerary ritual.

“Iron Age funerary practices are absolutely phenomenal and you really need to be very open-minded because they could come up with all sorts of things,” lead author Laura Castells Navarro, an archaeologist at the University of York, tells CNN’s Issy Ronald and Amarachi Orie.

The remains were found beneath a pile of stones near Loch Borralie, a lake in far northern Scotland close to the Atlantic coast. Archaeologists suspect the individuals were interred sometime between 50 B.C.E and 70 C.E.

The adult woman was over the age of 30 when she died. When researchers took a closer look at her skeleton, they found an unusual fracture at the base of her skull, as well as scrape marks on the inside of her skull. Together, these findings suggest her brain was deliberately removed using some sort of sharp tool, possibly as part of efforts to preserve the skull for display. But cannibalism is also a possibility, the researchers write in the paper.

Richard Madgwick, an archaeologist at Cardiff University who was not involved with the research, agrees the marks suggest the skull was manipulated in some way. But he’s not convinced they prove the woman’s brain was removed, he tells NewScientist’s Chris Simms.

Did you know? Iron Age advantages

The introduction of techniques to work with iron brought Britain into a new era. Iron was stronger and more abundant than bronze, per the University of Warwick. In agriculture, ploughs tipped with iron could turn soil faster than previous tools, while iron axes were more effective at clearing forests.

They also discovered that four of her leg and arm bones appear to have been broken in half, then whittled to a sharp, tapered point on one end, possibly to turn them into tools. Despite these mysterious modifications, however, someone placed the bones in the grave in their original anatomical positions.

Researchers don’t yet know why the woman’s skeleton was manipulated in such a way. The modifications might represent the “purposefully abusive treatment of the body of an outsider or low status individual,” the researchers write in the paper. However, “the care with which she was reassembled and deposited … suggests she commanded a level of reverence and respect by her community,” Castells Navarro says in a university statement.

Either way, whoever performed the modifications likely had “an insane knowledge of anatomy,” she tells CNN.

Zooming out, the burial provides evidence of a “high level of care and attention by the living community,” as well as a “continued interaction between the living and the dead,” Castells Navarro says in a journal statement.

Adelle Bricking, an archaeologist at Museum Wales who was not involved with the research, agrees, telling NewScientist that death “isn’t the end, where they just bury people and leave them alone.”

“They’re exhuming them, selecting certain remains, working them, handling them and then finally placing them in a special place as their appropriate next step in their afterlife,” she adds.

The teenage boy was roughly 15 years old when he died and, based on a DNA analysis, he was likely a maternal second cousin of the adult woman. His bones do not appear to have been modified after death.

Both the adult woman and the teenage boy appear to be related to other Iron Age individuals buried on the remote Orkney Islands, roughly 108 miles away, and on the Applecross peninsula, some 140 miles away.

This finding suggests “prehistoric maritime communities periodically moved around the north coast and Northern Isles of Scotland, possibly in small groups,” Castells Navarro says in the university statement.

“This movement,” she adds, “allowed for the spread and maintenance of cultural practices and traditions.”

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