You can buy ancient Roman pottery fragments for much less than that.
Amphorae were the plastic bottles and shipping containers of the ancient world.
Their shards are found en masse in every archaeological dig.
If we are talking oldest, Romans are babies in the crib!
I second pottery shards - they are abundant and go back tens of thousands of years. Even if you wanted a “complete” item, potsherds were used for all types of purposes as complete tools, building materials, writing surfaces, etc.
Interestingly, there are so many whole amphorae because whenever there was an earthquake or eruption, people would put their amphorae under an arched window or doorway, as they were the strongest parts of their houses, and less likely to collapse onto their amphora full of food
You can buy ancient Roman pottery fragments for much less than that.
Amphorae were the plastic bottles and shipping containers of the ancient world.
Their shards are found en masse in every archaeological dig.
Same with paleolithic bifaces and arrowheads.
You can even buy old coins. Novel pieces of history to have if that you’re thing.
You have to do some shopping around if you want a nice one under a hundred nowadays. But OPs requirement wasn’t for it to look good
If we are talking oldest, Romans are babies in the crib!
I second pottery shards - they are abundant and go back tens of thousands of years. Even if you wanted a “complete” item, potsherds were used for all types of purposes as complete tools, building materials, writing surfaces, etc.
Interestingly, there are so many whole amphorae because whenever there was an earthquake or eruption, people would put their amphorae under an arched window or doorway, as they were the strongest parts of their houses, and less likely to collapse onto their amphora full of food