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Thursday, June 10, 2021

The chicken egg and the thousand-year-old privy

NO YOLK! 1,000-year-old chicken egg perfectly preserved in human feces inside an ancient cesspit is unearthed in Israel (Stacy Liberatore, Daily Mail).

It was more an eggshell than an egg. Most of the contents had leaked out through a crack. But that makes its survival all the more remarkable. And contrary to my dreadful pun above, a little of of the yolk was left inside. The researchers hope to get some DNA from it.

They also found three bone dolls ("Coptic dolls") in the cesspit.

For the fourth-century mosaic found recently at the site (Yavne) and mentioned in the article, see here.

For another story on ancient chicken eggshells (from Jerusalem), see here. For the ancient domestication of the chicken, see here.

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