Five years ago, Anna Lee Dozier purchased a vase from the clearance shelf of a Maryland thrift store — then she learned it was actually crafted by the Maya 2,000 years ago.
Anna Lee DozierThe ancient Maya vase purchased by Anna Lee Dozier five years ago.
While at a Maryland thrift store five years ago, Anna Lee Dozier found what she thought was nothing more than a good deal: a vase reminiscent of those created by the Maya for just $3.99. She later discovered the deal was better than she realized. The vase wasn’t just reminiscent of Maya pottery — it was Maya pottery.
It turns out the vase was crafted by the Maya between 200 and 800 C.E., and now it’s on its way back to its homeland.
An Ancient Maya Vase Found In A Thrift Store
Dozier first came across the ancient vase at the 2A Thrift Store in Clinton, Maryland, where it sat on a clearance shelf with a price tag of $3.99. Dozier was transfixed by the vase, largely because she has done work in the past with Indigenous communities in Mexico as a human rights advocate with Christian Solidarity Worldwide.
“I could see that it had some kind of link to Mexico, in terms of what it looked like, and since it’s a country that I work on and it’s really important to me, I thought it would be just a nice little thing to take home and put on the shelf and to remind me of Mexico,” she told local NPR station KVCR.
Esteban Moctezuma Barragán/XThe vase dates back to the Classical period of the Maya civilization, between 200 and 800 C.E.
Dozier added that she did think the vase looked old, “but not old-old, like 20 to 30 years old, maybe.”
The vase sat on a shelf in Dozier’s Washington, D.C. home for five years. It wasn’t until this past January, when she visited the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City while on a work trip, that Dozier began to wonder if the vase was actually much older than she thought. Several Maya vases at the gallery bore an uncanny resemblance to the one she had purchased at the thrift store.
“Some of the things I was looking at looked awfully like what I had at home on my shelf,” she said. “I still was dubious that it was real, but just thought it looked enough like that that I asked to speak to someone in the [museum] offices and just ask, if I had something of interest, what would be the process to authenticate that.”
Museum staff told Dozier to contact the Mexican Embassy when she returned to the U.S. She did, and officials there asked for photographs of the vase and its dimensions.
Shortly after, Dozier said, “I got an email saying, ‘Congratulations, it’s real and we would like it back.’”
The Ancient Maya Vase Is Returned To Mexico
Dozier obliged the request and returned the vase to the Mexican government. A ceremony to celebrate the artifact’s repatriation was held on June 17 by the Cultural Institute of Mexico in Washington, D.C., with Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Esteban Moctezuma Barragá in attendance.
Dozier said there was some sense of relief after returning the vase. After all, with three young boys at home, there was a non-zero chance it could have been damaged at any time.
Esteban Moctezuma Barragán/XAnna Lee Dozier with ambassador Esteban Moctezuma Barragán at the June 17 repatriation ceremony.
“I am thrilled to have played a part in its repatriation story. I would like it to go back to its rightful place and to where it belongs,” she told local CBS station WUSA. “But I also want it out of my home because I have three little boys and I have been petrified, well it’s gone now, but I was petrified that after 2,000 years I would be the one to wreck it!”
Ambassador Barragá commended Dozier’s decision to return the vase, saying, “When you have strong roots, you know them and you honor them. She recognized that a whole country, a whole culture cares about it, and we are deeply in gratitude with her.”
After reading about this Maya vase found in a thrift store, learn more about Maya history by learning about El Castillo. Then, discovery more about Camazotz, the ancient Maya “death bat” god.
