14th-Century Egg Found In Azov Toilet

The St. Petersburg Times

Published: November 14, 2012 (Issue # 1735)

MOSCOW — Archeologists working in the town of Azov in southern Russia have unearthed a fully preserved chicken egg dating to the 14th century.

“The egg is approximately dated between 1330 and 1350,” Andrei Maslovsky, a senior research fellow at the Azov Nature Reserve, told Interfax on Tuesday.

Peculiarly, the egg was found in a public toilet in the central part of the Rostov region town founded in 1067.

“It is mind-boggling how a chicken egg could have ended up in a toilet and was not broken,” Maslovsky said.

He described the egg as being 52 millimeters long and about 39 millimeters in diameter.

He said it was very light, fragile and possibly empty because all the organic substances inside had likely decomposed and evaporated through the shell’s pores.