Mysterious 2,000-year-old chicken egg buried in the ancient tomb

On August 24, a more than 2,000-year-old chicken egg was discovered in an ancient tomb on the bank of Xich Shui River, Guizhou Province, China.

1. Discovering ancient tombs for nearly 2000 years in China
2. Reveal treasures in the tomb of the Three Kingdoms period
3. 4,000 year old tombs in Xinjiang

Found chicken eggs buried in a 2000 year old tomb

This is the first time such an egg was discovered in an ancient tomb in Guizhou. Archaeological team is "headache" because it has not found a way to bring the egg up when it is too soft.

Hoang Kim Loan relic site is located on the bank of Xich Thuy river, Thu Thanh town is the largest relic site opened in Guizhou up to this point.

The archaeological team discovered a lot of pottery and part of animal bones in a 2,000-year-old tomb in the Han Dynasty.

Chicken eggs have a lifespan of 2,000 years.(Source: QQ)

Especially, a yellowish ball is found on the pile of pottery.

"When using a broom brush to gently sweep, the surface of the ball is cracked," said Truong Cai, the person in charge of the archaeological team . "We took a careful look and a thorough comparison finally determined it was a chicken egg".

Due to being buried in the ground for too long, it is impossible to distinguish the yolk and egg white. However, according to observation, eggshell is preserved quite intact.

Finding chicken eggs in ancient tombs is not only the first occurrence in archaeological history in Guizhou but it is also very rare in China. Previously, chicken eggs were also found in graves in Henan, Shanxi or Chongqing. These graves have something in common that is from the Han Dynasty.

According to witnesses, this egg is smaller than the currently sold chicken eggs. But why bury chicken eggs in ancient tombs? Zhang Cai Lock said that Han people considered dying as well as living, so objects used while alive would be burned into pottery as a burial object. Similarly, alcohol, cereals or eggs . all the things they usually eat when living also become buried objects.

Currently, the team members are trying to bring the egg up because it is possible to just touch it and it will break immediately."If you do it in a traditional way using a plaster method, you can put it up, but then it is very difficult to remove the plaster from the surface of the egg," Truong Cai Lock said. Although it has been successfully put forward, how to preserve an egg that is 2,000 years old is another story.