Nanjing Museum Exhibits Eggs From 2800 Years Ago

On Dec. 13, 2013, Nanjing Museum Domestic History Hall exhibits a jar of eggs found in a Xizhou tomb from 2800 years ago. These eggs are considered the "oldest" eggs found in China.

Since its reopen in November, Nanjing Museum has exhibited over 40,000 cultural relics. Visitors are overwhelmed by all kinds of cultural treasures in the museum. These eggs might not be the most treasurable ones, however, they have certainly caught a lot of people's attention. The pictures of the eggs taken by some visitor were posted on the Internet and have generated huge popularity as well. Many people have left comments below the article, saying that these eggs might be the famous Chinese "thousand years old egg" because they are indeed thousand years old. Some other wondered if scientists could get DNA from the eggs to clone some chickens from 2800 years ago.

The archaeologists discovered the jar containing the eggs, in a Xizhou tomb located in Jiangsu province. The jar is evaluated antique itself and is called "Xizhou geometric hard clay vase." The archaeologists were surprised to find eggs which are about 1-1.5 inches wide with very thin shells inside the vase. The eggs were fossilized due to old ages. In order to better protect these valuable treasures, Nanjing Museum didn't take out the eggs to display separately. Instead, all of the eggs are left in the container, exactly as the way they were first found.