The dig was at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and the researchers were from Oxford. The recovery of the eggs resulted in the breaking of three of them, and the researchers reported a smell that they would have expected from eggs that were long past their use-by date. However, one of the eggs is not broken and will be the subject of further study. Edward Biddulph, senior project manager with Oxford Archaeology South, said that it was the only complete Roman egg known in the U.K. and that the egg and the basket might have been elements of an offering to Roman gods to during a religious ceremony.

The archaeologists also reported finding remains of an oak and willow basket of a style that was not at all common. More pedestrian items also found in the waterlogged pit included coins, leather shoes, and wooden tools.

The nine-year dig at Aylesbury, northeast of Oxford, ended in 2016 and was carried out ahead out of the start of construction on a housing development near the Roman town of Fleet Marston, near the major Roman road Akeman Street, itself a link between the two very famous Watling Street and the Fosse Way.