Archaeologists Baffled By A 2,000-Year-Old Skeleton Found In Scotland With Its Brain Scooped Out And Its Bones Turned Into Tools
The landscape, in short, is old in ways that make human history — even Iron Age human history — seem almost recent.
The preservation conditions that allowed the Loch Borralie bones to survive two thousand years in interpretable form reflect the specific geological and hydrological character of the region.
The limestone-influenced soils of some parts of Sutherland have higher pH values than the acid peat soils that dominate much of the Scottish Highlands, and it is this relatively higher alkalinity that appears to have been critical for bone preservation at the site.
Bone is composed largely of calcium phosphate mineral, which dissolves in acidic conditions but is relatively stable in neutral or mildly alkaline ones.
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