Archaeology needs very rich professional knowledge, and we can't be careless. Some cultural relics are so precious that once they are damaged, it is difficult to repair them. In recent years, through the unremitting efforts of archaeologists, countless cultural relics have been excavated and placed in museums for the world to watch, marveling at the wisdom and superb manufacturing technology of the ancients.
Six years ago, Nanjing Museum exhibited a cultural relic, which was a pottery jar from the Western Zhou Dynasty. If it's just a clay pot, it's a long time ago at best, which may not be shocking. After all, many pottery pots have been unearthed, and their shapes are similar. This earthenware pot has attracted much attention because it contains a kind of "delicious food". Some humorous scholars can't help teasing: this should be an old preserved egg! What the hell is going on?
Things have to start from decades ago. At that time, when archaeologists excavated an ancient tomb group of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Jiangsu, they inferred from the specifications of the cemetery that although there were many ancient tombs here, they were not the tombs of princes and nobles, but the burial places of wealthy families in the Western Zhou Dynasty at most. As we all know, the larger the cemetery, the more funerary objects there will be and the higher the value will be. On the contrary, there may be only simple daily necessities.
In spite of this, the experts still carry out the excavation work meticulously. Even if there are no priceless funerary objects, at least some cultural relics can be found, which plays an important role in studying the daily life of the ancients. Many things happen. In one of the tombs, a well-preserved pottery pot was unearthed, and the pattern on it was clearly visible. According to identification, the pottery pot dates back about 2800 years. At that time, the ancients were able to carve exquisite patterns on pottery, which was really admirable.
After carefully observing the pattern of the pottery jar, archaeologists gave it a tall name, that is, "geometric printed hard pottery bottle of the Western Zhou Dynasty". Clean the soil on the surface of the clay pot. When I was ready to move it slowly, I found it was not light. With rich archaeological experience, experts believe that this clay pot is definitely not empty, there must be something in it, otherwise it can't be so heavy.
In order to make a painting, the expert carefully opened the closed pottery jar, which shocked almost everyone. It is not a gold and silver jade, nor an exquisite bronze, but its value and significance even exceed that of ordinary cultural relics. I saw that the clay pot was full of eggs. You are not mistaken. It is an ordinary egg now, but these eggs are very old and were laid by chickens in the Western Zhou Dynasty. In addition to shock, more is a surprise. This is the first time that eggs were unearthed two or three thousand years ago.
Anyone with a little common sense knows that eggs can't be stored for too long, they are easy to rot, and it is not easy to put them for a few years. Eggs from the Western Zhou Dynasty have been preserved to this day. It turned out that these eggs were put in a sealed pottery jar, and the tomb was almost in a vacuum state, so they did not rot and became egg fossils. Today, Nanjing Museum collects eggs from the Western Zhou Dynasty, which is the oldest egg ever unearthed.
Netizens with big brains think that the tomb owner liked to eat eggs before his death, so his family put a can of eggs in his tomb. I have a question. The surname of the Zhou royal family is Ji, and the pronunciation of Ji is the same as that of chicken. In order to avoid taboo, there should be no "egg" name. So what are the eggs of the Western Zhou Dynasty called?