Ancient Brain Code Matched By Scientists

"We sawed off the back of the skull, and into our hands dropped the brain - completely and perfectly preserved!"

Dr.  Glen H. Doran, archeologist for Florida State University, speaks with awe of the discovery of a 7,000-year-old human brain from a Florida swamp near Titusville.

It is the first time this delicate organ, this old, has been unearthed intact.

The preservation is so near natural that scientists at FSU and University of Florida have been able to clone - create a living duplicate - of the genetic chromosome containing the code for growing a specific individual.

"This doesn't mean an ancient Indian will come crawling out of our laboratory," Doran hastens to reassure the squeamish.  "Growing a complex organism is beyond human capability."

He explained, however, that it should be possible to determine the pattern of "rungs" on the twisted ladder-shaped cells which ordain the sex, shape, size, color and thousands of other characteristics which make up living creatures.

"Who knows?  We might find a chromosomal difference that would help us understand cancer or hereditary diseases."

A cache of human bones was made last year when a land developer subdivided a piece of property known as Windover Farms.

A swamp was directly in the path of a planned street.  Earth-moving machinery was brought in to remove muck and replace it with hard fill.  Most swamp muck in the area is 10 feet deep; but here the depth was 20 feet, not counting three feet of standing water.

When the equipment operators came to an unusual peat strata "like rubber" they also turned up what they thought were rocks.  Upon closer examination the rocks proved to be human skulls.

Fortunately the developer recognized that the find was significant and informed the FSU anthropology department.

Immediately evident to Dr. Doran were shell, wood and human skeletal material of five persons.  Three of the individuals were children, a unique discovery inasmuch as immature bones decay easily.

The scarcity of artifacts and a complete lack of pottery fragments confirmed the age of the Windover site, for stone tools and ceramic utensils are a relatively late introduction into Florida.

Windover Farms rerouted its road and bore the initial costs of site preparation and permitting.  Archeological excavation began in the fall of 1984.  A 3-acre portion of the pond was drained by continuous pumping of 158 wells encircling the site.

Originally the pond was a cove of Bird Lake inadvertently drained by an attempt to build a canal at the turn of the century.

A crew of dedicated volunteers under the direction of Dr. Doran and Dr. David Dickel, field director, removes damp peat a quarter-inch at a time with hand trowels and dentist picks.

So far, four skulls with brain material have been found, the most recent one in November while we toured the site.

"When we found the first brain-filled skull last year we didn't realize what we had."

Doran recalls.  "There was no previous experience to guide us.  "It was several hours before we suspected the material was brain tissue.  Then, we simply put it in a plastic sack and drove it to Tallahassee at the end of the day.

"Since then we have learned to put the skulls into air-tight bags with nitrogen gas, pack them in ice and rush them to nearby Brevard Community College."

The high degree of preservation is because of the rapid burial of bodies directly into underwater graves scooped out of the swamp muck which has no oxygen to support decay.

According to radio-carbon datings of the bones, the burials extended over a period of 400 years between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago.  Apparently the site had been set aside by the Indians as a cemetery.

Doran speculates that the natives of that time believed spirits were released at death, and water was a barrier to them.  Thus, immediate burial under water was essential.  The association of water with supernatural spirits was common with primitive people.

"Fortunately this superstition preserved the brain before it had an opportunity to deteriorate." he states.

The practice has produced an efficient time-capsule which can he deciphered to some extent with the help of archeologists, anthropologists, microbiologists, paleobotanists, pollen specialists, geologists and zooarcheologists.

From microscopic analysis of organic material sifted from the digging,  the scientists have been able to reconstruct the environment of Florida over a 10,000 year period.

Analyses have shown that the area immediately after the last ice age was cooler-comparable with the climate of Virginia today.

During the past 8,000 to 9,000 years the area has undergone a gradual warming trend, and pine forest flourished.  This was crowded out successively with bay, hickory and live oak trees.

About 5,000 years ago there was a savannah-like environment with grasses prevalent.  This was rather quickly replaced with the present subtropical foliage.

To date, 40 individuals have been removed from the site -- half of them "sub-adult " Doran and Dickel expect to find "at least a hundred" more if funding can he obtained.

Doran estimates that a thorough excavation of the site would cost "something over a million dollars" because of the elaborate piping and pumping necessary.

He ruefully admits that this much money would be hard to come by.  The state legislature, recognizing the importance of the site, has underwritten much of the current expenses.  But the demand for scientific funding is great.

Doran hopes for foundation or federal funds to continue the dig.  "Our findings help show how closely we, today, are related to the people who lived here thousands of years ago." declares Dr.  Doran.

"All of us have a basic desire to find out who we are.  We hope to dig out clues that fit an enormous puzzle.  Maybe we can catch a glimpse of humankind and who we are."

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