The significance of the egg is clear from the earliest stages of the Neolithic in Europe and Anatolia.The symbolism of the egg bears not so much upon birth as upon rebirth modeled on the repeated creation of the world. There are several categories of egg symbolism. The first comprises the Bird carrying the cosmogonic egg, the second links the egg with water, and the third with spirals, crescents, horns, whirls, crosses, X's, snakes,and sprouting plants. This Water Bird, with a sprouting egg in its' belly and a snake or caterpillar below its' beak, is from a tableau of "becoming" found on a Minoan vase. Crete 14th cent. B.C.
The Language of the Goddess, Marija Gimbutas Pg. 213-216