A Woman Bought A Vase For $3.99 At A Maryland Thrift Store That Turned Out To Be A Nearly 2,000-Year-Old Mayan Artifact
At a thrift store in Maryland, a woman from Washington, D.C., purchased what she thought was an ordinary vase for $3.99.
However, it turned out to be a Mayan artifact that was almost 2,000 years old. She realized what she was in possession of after seeing a similar vessel in a museum.
About five years ago, Anna Lee Dozier, a cultural worker and a mom of three, had been rummaging through 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, when she encountered what appeared to be a “tourist reproduction” of an ancient Mayan vase. She noted that at the time, it seemed to her that the vase was around 20 to 30 years old.
Dozier often travels to Mexico for work, and the item caught her eye because it stood out from everything else on the shelves. It was also “recognizably from Mexico.”
She put the vase in a small room in her house that she designated as the library. Her three young boys are not allowed to play in there, as it is the place where she keeps books and other valued objects.
At the beginning of this year, Dozier traveled to Mexico for her job. She works at Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization that specializes in religious freedom.
During her trip, she visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. She was surprised to see vases that were similar to the one she had bought for under $5.
She even approached a museum staff member to ask what she should do if she found an artifact from the same period of history. When Dozier arrived home from her trip, she reached out to the Mexican Embassy and sent them photographs and measurements of her vase.
Experts at the embassy determined it was a painted ceremonial urn that belonged to the Indigenous Mayan people, and it was nearly 2,000 years old. It dates back to the Mayan Classic period, which spanned from 200 to 800 A.D.
W.Scott McGill – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
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The embassy arranged to have her send the vessel back to its home country. She packed the artifact in a cardboard box and surrounded it with crumpled newspaper for padding.
Then, she carefully drove 30 minutes to the embassy in D.C., where Mexico’s Ambassador to the U.S., Moctezuma Barragán, was waiting to greet her.
The Ambassador thanked Dozier for her generosity, saying that her actions allowed for the preservation of rich cultural heritage.
The vase will be returned to the National Institute of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. Dozier was glad to have helped recover a valuable piece of history. She never would have considered selling or auctioning the vase.
“Giving it back feels so much better than it would if I put it on eBay, and I got a bunch of money,” Dozier said.
“It’s really important to recognize that some of these things, especially with such historical and cultural value to an entire country and people – you can’t really put a number on that.”
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