To the Kitchen, on the Tables and... to the Afterlife. Remains of Eggs in Early Medieval Graves from Poland

In the early Middle Ages, birds were the source of meat, fat, feathers, and eggs. Their main supplier was domestic poultry, especially chickens. Eggs were an important and widely available component of the diet, but also played a role, among other things, in the funeral rituals of that time. In the cemeteries of the early Piast period, their remains in the form of shells are a rarely recorded element of grave furnishings (33 graves from thirteen cemeteries). These finds occur mainly in burials of children (infans) and adolescents (iuvenis). There are various meanings, content, and connotations associated with depositing eggs as grave goods, relating to both pagan and Christian religious worldviews. The key issues seem to be those related to fertility, stimulation of life forces, regeneration, and transformation. The magical and protective significance of the egg is also revealed.