His Toothbrush Holder Turns Out to Be 4K Years Old

Some people might use an old mug to hold toothbrushes and toothpaste. A man in England used a 4,000-year-old piece of pottery, by accident. Karl Martin picked up the pot along with another at a flea market for all of $5, reports Atlas Obscura. Martin is a valuer at Hansons Auctioneers, but the pot didn't strike him as that special, so he stuck it in his bathroom and used it as a toothbrush holder. There it sat for a few years until Martin noticed similar-looking pottery while helping a colleague unload a van. He asked the colleague to inspect his own pot and, voila, turns out it was made around 1900 BC in the Indus Valley Civilization in what is now Afghanistan.

"I feel a bit guilty about keeping my toothbrush in it now," says Martin in a news release from Hansons. The pot features the image of an antelope, and the style is consistent with Indus Valley work, according to the chief of antiquities at Hansons. The piece recently sold at auction, and while Martin won't get rich on the $102 it fetched, it's still not a bad return on his investment. (This piece of pottery is twice as old, and it suggests that those who made it enjoyed their wine.)