Preserved brains in medieval skulls

Fifty‐six out of seventy‐four skulls dating from the Middle Ages contained intracranial masses with more or less preserved external brain features. The skulls were excavated from a churchyard outside a former Franciscan monastery in Svendborg, Denmark. Histologic, scanning electron microscopic, and biochemical studies have established that the masses consist of brain material preserved in the state of adipocere.