A woman discovered a $4 vase she bought at a thrift store is a 2,000-year-old Mayan artifact, Fox News reported Friday.
Anna Lee Dozier learned a vase she bought for just $3.99 at a local thrift store is actually a Mayan artifact dating back over a millennium, according to Fox News. The ancient ceramic piece, originally purchased five years ago at the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, will now be returned to Mexico, its country of origin.
Dozier, who works for the human rights organization Christian Solidarity Worldwide, often traveled to Mexico for her job, Fox News reported. It was her familiarity with the region that drew her attention to the vase, which she initially thought was a mere tourist souvenir, possibly a few decades old. However, a visit to Mexico City’s National Museum of Anthropology in January sparked a realization.
Washington, DC, woman learns her $4 thrift store vase is 2,000-year-old Mayan artifact https://t.co/iKKHux5qf7
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 21, 2024
“As I was walking through, it just occurred to me that some of the things that I was looking at looked very similar to what I had at home,” she said, the outlet reported. (RELATED: Construction Workers Unearth 9,000-Year-Old Artifacts That May Change Brazil’s History)
She consulted a museum staff member who advised her to contact the Mexican embassy back in the U.S. if she suspected she had a cultural artifact. Following this advice, Dozier reached out to the embassy, which initiated a verification process for the vase, Fox News stated. Photos and information were sent to Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, where experts confirmed the vase’s origins from the Mayan Classic Period, dating between 200 A.D. and 800 A.D.
MONTERREY, MEXICO – MAY 29: A Mexican flag is seen during the 2024 closing campaign event at Arena Monterrey on May 29, 2024 in Monterrey, Mexico. According to the Instituto Nacional Electoral (INE) over 100 million people are allowed to vote on the 2024 Presidential Election in Mexico. Claudia Sheinbaum of the Sigamos Haciendo Historia coalition, Xochitl Galvez of Fuerza y Corazón por México coalition and Jorge Alvarez Maynez of Movimiento Ciudadano will participate as the candidates for the presidency. (Photo by Azael Rodriguez/Getty Images)
Upon confirmation of the vase’s authenticity, the embassy requested its return. Dozier, determined to see the artifact safely returned, carefully packed the vase and personally delivered it to the Mexican Cultural Institute in D.C.
“That little 30-minute drive, the whole way, I was just praying that [there would be] no fender benders, no accidents. Just get it there in one piece,” she said, according to Fox News.
