The fracture of the cranial base may have been the means by which access to the skull interior was gained, and the cut marks may represent the actual process of clearing the brain tissue from the interior surface.

This interpretation connects the Loch Borralie treatment of the skull to a practice that would have been intelligible within the broader Iron Age British context of skull significance and curation, even if the specific evidence of brain removal itself is without direct parallel in the archaeological record.

The Bone Tool Tradition and Its Context

The modification of human long bones into tools is not an entirely unprecedented practice in the archaeological record of prehistoric Britain and Europe, though the specific form and context of the Loch Borralie evidence is unusual.

Human bone was used as a raw material for tool production in prehistoric Europe from quite early periods.