diff --git a/basis/marshal.lua b/basis/marshal.lua
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8e0043c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/basis/marshal.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+--[[
+
+	TechAge
+	=======
+
+	Copyright (C) 2019-2022 Joachim Stolberg
+
+	AGPL v3
+	See LICENSE.txt for more information
+
+]]--
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+-- Marshaling: Returns serialize, deserialize functions
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+local use_marshal = minetest.settings:get_bool('techage_use_marshal', false)
+local MAR_MAGIC = 0x8e
+local marshal = techage.IE.require("marshal")
+
+if use_marshal then
+	if not techage.IE then
+		error("Please add 'secure.trusted_mods = techage' to minetest.conf!")
+	end
+	marshal = techage.IE.require("marshal")
+	if not marshal then
+		error("Please install marshal via 'luarocks install lua-marshal'")
+	end
+elseif techage.IE then
+	marshal = techage.IE.require("marshal")
+end
+
+if marshal then
+	return marshal.encode, 
+		function(s)
+			if s ~= "" then
+				if s:byte(1) == MAR_MAGIC then
+					return marshal.decode(s)
+				else
+					return minetest.deserialize(s)
+				end
+			end
+		end
+else
+	return minetest.serialize,
+		function(s)
+			if s ~= "" then
+				if s:byte(1) == MAR_MAGIC then
+					error("'lua-marshal' is required to deserialize this string")
+				else
+					return minetest.deserialize(s)
+				end
+			end
+		end
+end
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