Experts Discovered A 1,000-Year-Old Egg And Accidentally Cracked It Open
A team of archeologists are hard at work in a city in modern-day Israel. As the experts excavate a centuries-old cesspit they spot something unexpected inside: an animal egg laid 1,000 years ago. Carefully, they pry the treasure from its tomb. But the delicate shell cracks – kick-starting a perilous race against time.
Undisturbed for millennia
Now, experts believe that the egg first entered the cesspit towards the end of the Abbasid period, when vast swathes of the Middle East were ruled by one all-powerful caliphate. And for an entire millennia, it lay unbroken and undisturbed beneath one of the most turbulent regions on Earth.
Emergency repair
Perfectly preserved in the ancient ruins beneath Yavneh, the egg might have carried its secrets into the next millennium. But thanks to the work of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) it has emerged – although not exactly intact. As the shell cracked, experts rushed to repair it before irreparable damage was done.
Before Israel as we know it
What exactly did the IAA discover hiding beneath Yavneh, then? And what kind of creature laid the ancient egg – only to have it unceremoniously cracked open 1,000 years down the line? Well, the story reveals a fascinating glimpse into life under the Abbasid caliphate before successive invasions changed the face of Israel as we know it.
Yavneh's beginnings
Located some 15 miles from the Israeli capital of Tel Aviv, Yavneh is home to some 50,000 people today. Despite being littered with modern developments, it is, in fact, an ancient city and is the second most important site for post-biblical Jewish history behind Jerusalem. And according to archeologists, it has been inhabited since at least the Iron Age.
