Cover Image Source: Representative image | Getty Images | Photo by JIE GAO

A woman from Washington DC found a long-lost treasure, some 2,000 years old at a thrift store. While many have found gold and diamonds at thrift shops, Anna Lee Dozier scooped up a vase that she thought was a replica of an ancient artifact for just $3.99. Years later, Dozier found out that the vase is an ancient Mayan artifact that is over 2,000 years old and quite literally, priceless. Now, the vase is being sent back to where it belongs, WUSA9 reported.

Here's how Dozier found out that she had a 2,000-year-old vase

About five years ago, Dozier came across an interesting vase on the clearance rack of the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton. She noticed it looked old but thought it would be 20 to 30 years old. She told WUSA9 that it looked like “some kind of tourist reproduction thing,” so she bought it at a bargain.

Five years later, in January this year, Dozier was on a work trip to Mexico. There she visited the Museum of Anthropology and noticed that some of the artifacts in the museum looked a lot like her thrift store vase. Thinking that she may have an artifact back at home, Dozier asked the museum staff about the procedure to repatriate something that could be an artifact. Dozier recalled that this was something the museum staff hears a lot. Thus, with a bit of skepticism, the staff instructed her to contact the embassy when she got back to her country.

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Dozier did exactly that and a month later, she shared pictures and dimensions of the vase with the officials. It was found that the vase wasn’t just an authentic Mexican artifact but it was a ceremonial urn that belonged to the Indigenous Mayan people. It dates back to between 200 and 800 AD and is a priceless treasure.

Representative Image of an unidentified Mayan artifact on display at the Museum of Natural History | Getty Images | Photo by Robert R. McElroy

Dozier then returned the vase in an official ceremony at the Cultural Institute of Mexico. “I am thrilled to have played a part in it's repatriation story. I would like it to go back to its rightful place and to where it belongs,” she said.

Dozier, who has worked as a human rights advocate with Indigenous communities in Mexico, said “human rights extend to culture and history” in a prepared statement at the ceremony, as per the report.

The vase is now among the other artifacts that were dropped off anonymously, heading back to its homeland. Representatives of the Cultural Institute told WUSA9 that artifacts are shipped to Mexico every month with 90% of the items marked authentic. The vase and the other collected artifacts will be up for final analysis at the Museum of Anthropology, after which their new home will be in one of the country’s museums.

The long-lost city

Last year, an ancient Mayan kingdom, about 2,000 years ago was discovered in northern Guatemala and Southern Mexico. Nearly 1,000 ancient Mayan settlements, including the 417 previously unknown cities connected by what may be the world’s first highway network were uncovered by archaeologists in the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin.

According to a statement from Guatemala's FARES anthropological research foundation cited by Reuters, the uncovered cities, towns and villages existed in the period between 1,000 B.C. and 100 A.D. The study was first published online by the Cambridge University Press.