Man Unknowingly Buys 4000-Year-Old Pot To Hold His Toothbrush

Sometimes people just don’t seem to realize that they have an almost priceless item in their home. This was what happened when Karl Martin, a man from England, picked up a 4,000-year-old piece of pottery at a flea market.

The repurposed jar that was used as a toothbrush holder has a painting of an antelope. According to Live Science, it can date back to the Indus Valley Harappan civilization, which operated around the northwestern regions of South Asia during the historical period known as the Bronze Age.

The pot was examined by  James Brenchley, the head of antiquities at Hansons Auctioneers and he found that it was an artifact from Afghanistan dating to 1900 B.C. What this means is that Martin was quite literally using an ancient piece of pottery as a toothbrush and paste holder.

As to how the piece of history even ended up in a flea market, to begin with, will forever be a mystery. It does hold up one thing about the flea market world and that’s the idea that a person can buy pretty much anything there.

Now, the real thing will be the wait for museums to start contacting Martin to buy it off him. It is a piece of history and given the long and seemingly well-preserved state it’s in, the pottery could fetch him a pretty penny. However, one thing standing in the way of it from actually being a piece of interest for a lot of museums and historians is that it was taken out of archeological context. That means the pot is the only source of evidence for where it came from and how it was used. Had the context come alongside the pot, two things would have happened: the first and obvious one being no one would have ever found it being used as a toothbrush holder, The second thing is that a museum or antique store would have been able to pick it up a lot faster.

All in all, this was just a cool situation that is both good and bad regarding how often it should happen. It’s nice to find history lying about in everyday life but that same piece of history being used in everyday life is something that can create a sense of disappointment in some people.

Source: Read Full Article