A perfectly preserved 1,000-year-old egg has been unearthed in Israel.
On the 10th local time, foreign media such as Haretz reported that the egg was found in an almost intact form from 1,000 years ago.
According to the Israeli Antiquities Administration (IAA), the egg, about 6 cm in size, has a few microcracks, but is in excellent condition.
"Ancient egg fragments have been found in some cases, but intact eggs are rare worldwide," said Dr. Lee Peregal, an ancient poultry expert who participated in the excavation.
This was possible because the eggs had been preserved surrounded by human feces in ancient cisterns.
Experts
speculated that
"it appears to have been preserved for a long time because it was wrapped in soft feces and maintained anaerobic (anoxia)
."
Ala Nagorsky, head of the IAA excavation group, who led the study, said, "It is difficult to store eggs for a long time even in supermarket egg boxes, but it is really surprising that eggs from a thousand years ago were preserved."
The excavation team was forced to crack the eggs for analysis, but most of the contents were leaking due to microcracks.
However, some of the yolk remained inside, allowing further analysis in the future, and the excavation team said they plan to extract DNA from the remaining yolk for the study of ancient poultry.
This is a 'news pick'.
(Photo = 'haaretz' homepage capture)