Discoveries

February 26, 2024

Unbreakable

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In 2010, researchers uncovered four 1,700-year-old speckled chicken eggs at a Roman pit in Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, as well as pottery vessels and leather shoes. All four eggs were intact when they were first found.

Unfortunately, three of them broke despite careful efforts to extract them – an accident that also released a very pungent sulfurous smell.

However, one of those eggs still has its contents intact, the Guardian reported.

Last year, archaeologists were discussing how to display the surviving “Aylesbury egg” when material scientists and conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown proposed to scan it.

The recent scans showed that the oval artifact still had liquid inside, which researchers believe to be a mix of yolk and albumen.

The finding caused excitement among scholars, with Goodburn-Brown calling it “one of the coolest and most challenging archaeological finds to investigate and conserve.”

Edward Biddulph of Oxford Archaeology – which oversaw the 2010 excavation – said the egg may be “the oldest egg of its type in the world.”

Its location within a pit used for malting and brewing suggests it may have been placed there as a votive offering, added Biddulph.

Scientists hope that further research can reveal intimate details about the bird that laid it nearly 2,000 years ago.

Now housed at the Natural History Museum in London, curators are facing the delicate task of extracting the egg’s contents without damaging its fragile shell.

This story originally appeared in the February 26, 2024 newsletter, Swimming With Crocodiles.