2,800-year-old Eggs in Nanjing Museum Spark Curiosity

An old pot containing dirt-covered fossilized eggs dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046BC-771BC) is on display at the Nanjing Museum in Nanjing, East China’s Jiangsu province. [Photo: Ge Yong]

One of the eggs. [Photo: Ge Yong]

An old pot of dirt-covered fossilized eggs dating back to the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046BC-771BC) displayed at Nanjing Museum in East China’s Jiangsu province have sparked people’s curiosity.

Many visitors are amazed at the small ancient eggs covered in clumps of earth, and wonder how they were kept intact all these years.

The pot was found in a vessel unearthed during an excavation of a Western Zhou Dynasty tomb in Jurong county, Jiangsu province.

Hu Weimin, deputy director of the display department at the museum, attributed the successful preservation to some incidental factors. "The eggs were fossilized during the long period of environmental changes, so they stayed intact," he said.

It might be possible to extract DNA and hatch the chickens, if active elements are found inside, Hu added.

Archaeologists said the eggs are the oldest of its kind in China.