Thanks to 3D scanners and computer technology scientists from University of Florence were able to create a reliable model of an ancient brain, which imprint was left on a skull dated back 17000 years. The skeleton was found in Calabria’s Grotta del Romito (Italy), a cave used by homo sapiens between 23,000 and 10,000 years ago and belonged to a boy of between 10 and 12 years old at the time of death.

Experts state that the boy was still growing and therefore the bones of his skull were quite soft allowing for an imprint on the inside of the skull to be created by the pressure of the growing brain on the bone. The Palaeolithic site at the Grotta del Romito, is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in Europe and has so far revealed a series of dwellings, graffiti and graves. Creating a 3D model of the brain will allow the scientists to look at the development of different areas of the organ, such as the language centre and see how they developed and to directly compare the brain of a young hunter-gatherer with the brain of a modern child.

(after The Local)