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I would rather write an email to some specialists asking about this (Ian Evans, Brian Hoggard, etc.) Some comparative thoughts: 1- Eliade wrote extensively about eggs in foundation rituals and building sacrifices. See also V. Newall, An Egg at Easter: A Folklore Study, Bloomington, IN 1971. I don’t think this is the case; 2- in (Alpine?) European folklore, there are many vernacular narratives where a supernatural creature (e.g. the nightmare, a demon of wilderness), in order to be expelled or stopped, is forced to count numerous eggshells. This motif (associated with the so-called 'impossibile tasks') is clearly connected to the infant changeling pattern (see e.g. S. De Rachewiltz, Gli infantes suppositi e l’enigma dei gusci, “Mondo Ladino” IX (1985), pp. 85-99 – in Italian). Perhaps such beliefs are ‘ritually’ mirroed in your singular case? According to this interpretation, someone put the eggs to stop the noxious dead - a small one, but still very dangerous :) - from returning... Ciao! Dav From: Ceri Houlbrook Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 10:23 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Eggs as domestic deposit Hello everyone, An acquaintance of mine was hoping that someone could shed some light on the following extract: "In demolishing a house recently, for the purpose of widening the Rue Guy Lussac, near the Pantheon, the workmen discovered in one of the chimney jambs a cavity in which was the skeleton of an infant of about a year old. The bones reposed on a layer of eggs, still entire, to the number of more than 60, and near the hand was a little leather ball, which had formerly been white. The heat had partly calcined the bones of the legs, and the eggs had been dried till the centres were not larger than a pea. The infant appears to have been in this receptacle for some 25 or 30 years, which besides had been made and closed up by some practised hand, as there were no external signs of any derangement. Conjecture is quite baffled as to the reasons for such a singular tomb, and for the accompanying eggs. Towards 1804 the house was inhabited by a religious community, but in the year 1807 it became a furnished lodging-house." Southland [NZ] Times, Issue 546, 22 August 1866, Page 3 Has anyone ever come across anything similar? All the best, Ceri Dr. Ceri Houlbrook University of Manchester Tel: +44 (0)161 279 1923