Woman finds priceless 2,000-year-old Mayan vase in Maryland thrift store

Officials said the vase is believed to have been made by Indigenous Mayan people in Mexico between 200 and 800 CE.

Most dedicated thrifters usually find junk on the clearance rack, but one Washington, D.C., woman discovered a link to ancient history when she purchased a 2,000-year-old Mayan vase.

The priceless artifact bought by Anna Lee Dozier in a Clinton, Maryland, thrift store came at a bargain, costing only US$3.99 (C$5.50).

Officials said the vase is believed to have been made by Indigenous Mayan people in Mexico between 200 and 800 CE.

Dozier, who told WUSA9 she purchased the vase five years ago, said she did not know the artifact was the real thing.

She said the vase looked “old-ish” and she suspected it to be a 20- or 30-year-old tourist reproduction of Mayan-style pottery. Dozier liked the vase anyway and decided to bring it home.

The vase stayed in Dozier’s residence until January of this year, when she visited Mexico’s Museum of Anthropology and realized the museum’s Mayan pottery looked strikingly similar to the one that she thrifted.

Dozier said she asked an employee at the Museum of Anthropology how she could go about repatriating her thrifted vase.

The staff member told Dozier it was a common question but seemed “skeptical” of her inquiry.