Researchers examining the remains of an Iron Age woman in northern Scotland have found signs that her brain may have been intentionally removed more than 2,000 years ago.
The discovery, made at a burial cairn in Sutherland, also revealed long-distance family connections, suggesting prehistoric communities maintained social and cultural ties across wide areas of Scotland.
The findings were published in the journal Antiquity and come from an investigation of two individuals buried in a low stone cairn at Loch Borralie, near the northwestern tip of mainland Scotland. The burial contained the remains of an adult woman and a juvenile boy.
Understanding funerary traditions in Iron Age Britain has long been difficult because human remains rarely survive. Soil conditions often destroy bone over time. North-west Scotland is one of the few regions where environmental conditions have preserved skeletal remains, offering researchers a rare opportunity to study how ancient communities treated their dead.
Researchers from the United Kingdom and the United States examined the remains to determine who the individuals were, where they came from, and whether they were related to each other or other groups in the region.
“We knew that in the north-west of Scotland, including the Northern and Western Isles, the circulation and deposition of human remains were particularly prominent,” said lead author Dr. Laura Castells Navarro of the University of York.
To investigate the burial, researchers combined osteological analysis, isotope testing, and ancient DNA studies.
The most striking discovery involved the adult woman. Researchers found fine cut marks on the inside of her skull and identified unusual modifications to several long bones, including the upper arm, forearm, and thigh bones. The bones had been shaped so that their ends tapered into points.
According to the researchers, the evidence suggests the woman’s brain was intentionally removed after death, and some of her bones were deliberately carved before burial.
The purpose of these actions remains unclear. However, researchers believe the treatment may indicate that the woman held a special place within her community.
“The motivation behind the extensive manipulation of the skeletal remains of Individual 1 is very difficult to interpret,” Castells Navarro said. “However, the care with which she was reassembled and deposited in the cairn possibly suggests she commanded a level of reverence and respect by her community.”
The study also uncovered evidence of extensive mobility among Iron Age communities.
Isotope analysis indicated that both individuals likely spent their childhoods about 80 kilometers southeast of Loch Borralie. Ancient DNA revealed genetic links to people living in Orkney, roughly 175 kilometers northeast of the site, and Applecross, around 225 kilometers to the southwest.
Researchers also determined that the woman and the boy were closely related, most likely maternal second cousins.
The findings suggest that family groups moved regularly around Scotland’s northern coast and islands while maintaining relationships across considerable distances.
“More broadly, our research shows that prehistoric maritime communities periodically moved around the north coast and Northern Isles of Scotland, possibly in small groups,” Castells Navarro said. “This movement allowed for the spread and maintenance of cultural practices and traditions.”
Taken together, the evidence of possible brain removal, deliberate bone modification, and long-distance family connections points to a complex society linked by shared traditions and social networks.
While researchers cannot determine exactly why the woman’s remains were altered, the burial suggests that some Iron Age communities maintained ongoing relationships with the dead and practiced funerary rituals that extended far beyond simple burial.
The findings provide a rare glimpse into beliefs and customs that shaped life in prehistoric Scotland more than two millennia ago.
John Swinney has finally admitted SNP funds raised for independence were spent on something else. This is fraud and the people of Scotland cannot shrug and move on – the reckoning must begin now.
The post The SNP Must Be Held to Account Over the Embezzlement Scandal appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Annual killing of infant gannets has been carried out on a remote Scottish island for at least 400 years
Animal welfare campaigners have called for talks on phasing out the “inhumane” hunt for infant gannets known as guga, which are killed by hunters on a remote Scottish island once a year.
OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be slowly phased out in dialogue with the Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been carried out for at least 400 years, as a cultural pursuit and as sustainable food harvesting.
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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
The massive Altar Stone at Stonehenge may have received some help from ancient glaciers on its long journey to southern England, but people still likely carried it much of the remaining distance, according to new research.
The study, led by Anthony J. I. Clarke and published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, examined the possible origins and transport routes of the six-ton sandstone monument that sits at the center of Stonehenge.
Researchers have long believed the Altar Stone came from northeast Scotland, roughly 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Stonehenge. However, exactly where the stone originated and how it reached Salisbury Plain have remained major archaeological mysteries.
The team combined geological analysis with computer models of ancient ice sheet movements to investigate whether glaciers could have transported the stone southward during the last Ice Age. Scientists focused on the Orcadian Basin, a large geological region in northeast Scotland that has been proposed as the stone’s source.
How did a 6-ton stone reach Stonehenge from Scotland?
Researchers found that glaciers may have moved the monument's famous Altar Stone part of the way. But ancient people likely completed the final journey, hauling the massive rock hundreds of kilometers across Britain. pic.twitter.com/mQFbTIb3ve
— Tom Marvolo Riddle (@tom_riddle2025) June 4, 2026
The study compared the Altar Stone’s mineral signature with sandstone formations across the basin. Researchers looked specifically at the ages of zircon grains embedded in the rock. These grains act like geological fingerprints and can help identify where a stone was formed.
The results pointed most strongly toward Caithness in mainland northeast Scotland. Sandstones from that region showed the closest match to the Altar Stone’s zircon age patterns.
Although Caithness appears to be the best geological match, computer models revealed a complication.
Ancient glaciers in the area mostly moved toward the northeast rather than toward southern England. The models showed only a limited pathway that could have carried material southeast toward Dogger Bank, a now-submerged area beneath the North Sea.
That finding makes a direct glacial journey to Stonehenge unlikely. Researchers concluded that glaciers alone could not explain how the stone reached its final location.
Even if glaciers carried the stone as far as Dogger Bank, people would still have needed to move it about 400 kilometers (250 miles) to Stonehenge.
The study also noted another challenge. Dogger Bank was flooded by rising sea levels after the Ice Age before the Altar Stone is thought to have arrived at Stonehenge. This creates a timing problem for any theory relying entirely on glacial transport. As a result, researchers suggest that ice may have played only an intermediate role in the stone’s journey.
The findings support the idea that Neolithic communities were responsible for moving the enormous stone over great distances. While glaciers may have shortened part of the route, substantial human effort would still have been required to bring the Altar Stone to Stonehenge, one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments.
The study adds a new piece to the puzzle of how ancient builders assembled Stonehenge and highlights the remarkable achievements of the people who constructed it thousands of years ago.
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