Archaeologists accidentally broke three Roman eggs that had been going off for 1,700 years.
The excavators unearthed a basket of four chickens’ eggs in a waterlogged pit during a dig in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Three of the eggs cracked, releasing an overpowering “potent stench”, however the team managed to preserve the fourth one – making it the only complete Roman chicken’s egg found in Britain. Experts from Oxford Archaeology think the waterlogged pit may have been used as a sort of Roman wishing well. Stuart Foreman, dig project manager, said: “There’s a very good reason it’s the first and only find in the UK.”
He added: “In a pit that has been waterlogged for thousands of years you get things that would never survive in a dry environment.
“But it’s incredible we even got one out. They were so fragile.” Alongside the eggs were dozens of coins, shoes, wooden tools and a “very rare” basket.
© Provided by The Independent Edward Biddulph, who spent three years analysing the
find, added: “Passers-by would have perhaps stopped to throw in offerings to make a
wish for the gods of the underworld to fulfil.
“The Romans associated eggs with rebirth and fertility, for obvious reasons.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/techandscience/archaeologists-
accidentally-break-eggs-that-had-been-going-off-for-1700-years/ar-BBXTaJM