An Amazing Discovery Inside an Old Roman Egg
Archaeologists in the UK have cracked open a mystery from the past with their discovery of a nearly 2,000-year-old Roman egg that is still intact inside with its original contents! Experts are calling it one of the most extraordinary archaeological finds in recent years.
The egg was among four unearthed in 2010 during a dig in Aylesbury led by Oxford Archaeology. Artifacts found with the eggs dated them to around 270 AD, when the site was an area used for malting and brewing. Experts believe the eggs were left there as ritual offerings when the pit went out of use. Three eggs cracked upon removal, but one remained intact – and a recent micro-CT scan revealed its gooey surprise.
An Amazing Discovery
Conservator Dana Goodburn-Brown was very bold and nervous transporting the fragile relic across London for testing. But her careful handling paid off, as the scan showed the egg’s contents had been preserved by the wet underground conditions. Senior museum curator Douglas Russell said it was the oldest natural egg he’d ever seen.
Project manager Edward Biddulph was totally blown away by what they saw. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It looked so modern, so fresh.” They plan to extract the preserved liquid very carefully to analyze. Biddulph says every step of learning about this one-of-a-kind egg is super cool. With modern techniques, they hope to identify what bird species laid it and what it can teach us about Roman rituals.
In the end, this bold discovery proves that amazing historical finds can still be made using good old-fashioned archaeological methods. Who would have ever guessed that a simple egg left as an offering so long ago would yield such a remarkable surprise? The researchers are excited to share more about their analysis of Britain’s most bold Roman relic in the future.
