Anna Lee Dozier, a Washington, DC woman, found a ceramic vase in a local thrift store in Maryland five years ago and bought it for $3.99. She had no idea she had an ancient Mayan artifact displayed at her home for five years.
The vase turned out to be a 2,000-year-old Mayan artifact is now headed to a Mexican museum.
Dozier told local CBS affiliate WUSA that about five years ago, she came across what she thought was a "tourist reproduction" of a Mayan vase.
"It did look old to me, but not old-old, like 20 to 30 years old, maybe," she told NPR station KVCR.
She claimed it had some kind of link to Mexico regarding what it looked like. She added that she thought it would be just a nice little thing to take home, put on the shelf, and remind her of Mexico.
In January 2024, Dozier made a business trip to Mexico. She visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City while on her vacation, and she was startled to see how similar some of the vases there were to the one she had spent less than $5 for.
She asked a museum employee what to do if she discovered an artifact from the same historical period because the vases she saw were nearly identical.
Dozier and her boys gave the vase to Mexican Ambassador Estaban Moctezuma Barragan this week at the Cultural Institute of Mexico, where it will be placed among other invaluable pre-Columbian artifacts.
"When you have strong roots, you know them, and you honor them," Barragan said at the ceremony. He noted that Dozier recognized that a whole country and culture care about it, and they are deeply grateful to her.
Meanwhile, Dozier expressed her happiness to the outlet about her decision.
"Human rights extends to culture and history," she said.
