Overview
- The archaeological team working at the Convento de Santa Clara confirmed and extracted a second saponified brain on Friday; forensic archaeologist Clara Veiga removed the tissue in the lower choir and the specimen will be moved to the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela for study.
- Both brains came from two of three complete graves excavated in the coro bajo where little skeletal material survived but human tissues and rare textiles were preserved, placing the burials broadly between the 16th and 19th centuries and before a 1915 reform.
- Conservation at the university will include histological analysis to identify the tissue's composition and structure, and laboratory dating will be used to confirm the burials' age and clarify whether these examples are earlier than previously known Iberian cases.
- The Diputación de Pontevedra has said the pair could represent the first documented saponified brains of this antiquity in the Iberian Peninsula, a claim that officials stress depends on the forthcoming lab results under the oversight of the Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio.
- The excavations have also yielded an almost intact clerical chasuble, two infant burials, a late-14th-century external structure and an additional corpse under a cloister ramp, discoveries that are reshaping interpretations of the convent's construction, burial practices and future display plans.