An ancient man’s remains were hacked apart and kept in a garage

Scientists have found ancient brains before—some are thought to be at least 10,000 years old. But this is the only time they’ve seen a brain turn to glass. They’ve even been able to spot neurons inside it. The man’s remains were found at Herculaneum, an ancient city that was buried under meters of volcanic ash following the eruption. We don’t know if there are any other vitrified brains on the site. None have been found so far, but only about a quarter of the city has been excavated. Some archaeologists want to continue excavating the site. But others argue that we need to protect it. Further digging will expose it to the elements, putting the artifacts and remains at risk of damage. You can only excavate a site once, so perhaps it’s worth waiting until we have the technology to do so in the least destructive way. After all, there are some pretty recent horror stories of excavations involving angle grinders, and of ancient body parts ending up in garages. Future technologies might e ... Read full article.