According to Smithsonian Magazine; In Chilliwack, British Columbia, an anonymous person donated a collection of 11 rings and two medals to a thrift store in the spring of 2024. The staff of this store, which operates with the aim of providing funds for the Bereavement Support Association, were unaware of the true value of the items and offered each piece for sale with a tag of only 30 Canadian dollars.
Some time later, the buyer, who introduced himself as an archaeologist, saw these objects and raised the possibility of their being historical. He asked store volunteers to contact experts at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby. After preliminary investigations and about a year of negotiations, the university decided to accept the objects to prevent them from entering the private antiques market.
According to Barbara Hilden, director of the university’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology, the lack of accurate documentation about the objects’ provenance made them difficult to accept. He emphasized that usually works without a clear background have limited scientific value, but this particular case was considered an exception due to its unique nature.
According to preliminary investigations by Sabrina Higgins, an archaeologist at the university, the material and construction techniques of the objects indicate that they may date back to the 4th or 5th century AD and the era of the Western Roman Empire. One of the medals has the Greek letters “CH” and the Roman letter “RH” which together form the symbol of Christ or “Christogram”.
The artifacts are now housed in the university’s Museum of Archeology and Anthropology and are scheduled to be the subject of a new undergraduate course in fall 2026. During this course, students will get acquainted with digital methods in the analysis of historical works, along with the scientific investigation and archiving of objects.
According to Higgins, in the course of research, it may be determined that the objects are fake, but even this result has educational value and can provide a basis for investigating the phenomenon of forgery in the antique market. At the end of the course, students will participate in designing a new exhibition about this collection.
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