Ceramic; Egg

Ceramic egg with slight cracking of off-white surface slip and some dimpling towards top. Two ceramic eggs were recovered from the excavations one complete and one fragmentary. The fragmentary egg shows that they are hollow, made from a white-firing earthenware, and glazed to the exterior. Being hollow, they are fairly lightweight. The eggs are believed to have been used with chickens to encourage them to lay in a preferred location and prevent them from pecking and therefore damaging their real eggs. While there is no photographic evidence, these finds suggest the keeping of chickens in the courtyards of court housing.