It is indeed a memorable and mysterious case that came to light just before Easter. At least one fact is beyond doubt, says the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. Accordingly, the oldest known chicken egg north of the Alps was not colored. The question of whether it was cooked, however, can no longer be answered. In any case, the egg in question was found in Nördlingen, where the shells ended up in the rubbish among burnt grain and animal bones in the 4th century BC. Scientists from the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments have now been able to prove this with the help of their English colleagues from the University of York.
Together they examined the millimeter-sized splinters from a late Iron Age garbage pit. The location in the midst of leftovers probably suggests that the hen’s egg was actually used for consumption at the time. This is the first direct evidence of human consumption of eggs north of the Alps.
“This, at first glance, inconspicuous find is evidence of a small turning point in terms of human eating habits,” said general conservator Mathias Pfeil, head of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, about the sensational find and continued: “Said with a wink: what happened back then began, later led to the Easter egg.”
The chicken as a status symbol
According to the current state of research, people in Central Europe kept chickens more as pets than as farm animals. The fact that roosters were considered a status symbol in the Iron Age, which began around 800 BC, is shown by depictions on coins from that time. Today’s domestic chicken originally descended from the Southeast Asian Bankiva chicken, which is still being bred.
Isolated bones of such animals have been found in Europe since the Iron Age. It is not until the third century BC that people seem to have kept chickens for the purpose of laying eggs. The animal bones that archaeologists regularly come across during excavations also provide information about this.
From then on there were more bones from hens than from cocks – for example in the oppidum of Manching near Ingolstadt. According to the scientists, this points to a targeted use of the chickens for egg production.
Archaeologists came across the historic garbage pit in Nördlingen during an excavation in 2020. The sediment recovered from this was slurried through fine sieves so that the macro-remains could then be examined under the microscope. The shell pieces also came to light.
The fact that the detection of a hen’s egg shell was possible at all is due to the now extremely refined investigation methods. The researchers benefited from “the favorable combination of good preservation conditions, a meticulous analysis of the smallest finds in the sieved sediment and new technology,” says Johann Friedrich Tolksdorf, the responsible archaeologist at the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.
The species of bird belonging to the egg remains was determined at the University of York using mass spectrometry of the protein molecules. The method enables a reliable analysis of even the smallest fragments and animal remains such as egg shells from Nördlingen. With the help of the C14 method, in which the proportion of the carbon isotope is measured, the ancient food waste was dated to the 4th century BC.
Lime eggs for the winter
Since that time at the latest, the egg has played a prominent role in customs and diet. Even in ancient times it was considered a primal symbol and the most visible carrier of life, but also as a magic remedy and as an offering. Above all, eggs were a precious commodity, even on farms, and this was true until a few decades ago.
Because the hens did not lay in winter, from September onwards the farmers’ wives collected some of the freshly laid eggs in clay jars filled with lime water. In this way, these so-called lime eggs at least did not rot. However, they lost their taste, which is why the first Easter eggs were a source of joy that one can no longer imagine today, when eggs are a commodity.
The color red plays a special role in Easter eggs. Traditionalists emphasize the love symbolism of the red eggs, around which many a tragedy is entwined. The author Wugg Retzer touched on this fact in the story “In die Rote Oar”.
In Retzer’s story, the postmaid Margot also wanted to fulfill the custom of giving red eggs as presents at Easter. Unfortunately, she insulted an honest suitor by handing him four eggs, not knowing that an even number of eggs means an invitation to coitus.