It was a lucky find in itself that archaeologists made in a Roman pit during an excavation in Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire) in 2010: four 1,700-year-old, speckled chicken eggs. Although experts were as careful as possible to retrieve the eggs, three broke, leaving behind a distinctive sulfur smell. Only one egg remained intact - and now, more than ten years later, it has revealed its sensational secret.
To the astonishment of archaeologists and naturalists, a scan has revealed that there is still liquid behind the egg's intact shell - almost two millennia after it was laid. The liquid is probably a mixture of egg yolk and egg white. Researchers speculate that it may reveal secrets about the bird that laid the egg 1,700 years ago.
It was astonishing enough to find what is believed to be the only intact egg from this period in Great Britain, said Edward Biddulph, senior project manager at Oxford Archeology, to the Guardian. "We often find pieces of shell, but no intact eggs."
The researchers did not expect to find such an old and well-preserved egg that still contains yolk and protein. “We might have expected it to have been leached over the centuries, but the liquid is still there. It's absolutely incredible. It could be the oldest egg of its kind in the world.”
"This is the oldest unintentionally preserved bird egg I have ever seen," Douglas GD Russell, senior curator of bird eggs and nests at the Natural History Museum (NHM), also told CNN. Russell helped Oxford Archeology find the best preservation for the ancient egg.
There were older eggs, such as mummified ones, which were probably excavated in Egypt in 1898, according to Russell. The find from Buckinghamshire is still unique because there is no other naturally preserved egg that is that old. “That’s what makes it fascinating,” says Russell.
Egg as a food offering
The "Aylesbury Egg" was found along with a woven basket, clay pots, leather shoes and animal bones. Biddulph and his colleagues suspect that the eggs and bread basket may have been food offerings thrown into the pit as part of a religious ceremony during a funeral procession.
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