Egg Preserved For 1000 Years Was Cracked During Retrieval

When it comes to working carefully, paleontologists and archaeologists are well aware of the consequences.

They work with items that are not only ancient, but they are also irreplaceable, so great care is always taken to ensure that nothing is damaged in the process of removing it from the ground.

This became necessary in a rather unique way when the Israel Antiquities Authority was tasked with removing an egg that had been discovered in an ancient toilet. It wasn’t a dinosaur egg, it was a chicken egg and it had managed to survive for 1000 years, due to the fact that it was preserved in a toilet full of soft human waste.

As you can imagine, this was an incredible find, and although they have found eggshells that date back many more years, finding an entire egg that was intact was unheard of. They may even have found ancient eggs that were intact, such as ostrich eggs, but they tend to have a thicker shell than an egg laid by a chicken.

The Israel Antiquities Authority shared on Facebook about the find, saying that at one time, eating pork products was outlawed so other types of meat and chicken eggs were a rather popular way of getting protein in your diet. This was seen in a noticeable drop in pork bones during the same era.

Despite the fact that they were cautious when removing the egg, they did manage to crack it while it was being extracted from the cesspool.

They were able to get the egg back to the laboratory, however, and restore it so that further DNA analysis can take place.