About 35 years ago I was visiting my mum's uncle in the middle of nowhere India. His family had owned a village farm for time immemorial. There was a Ganesh statue at the side of a field. People walking to/from the field would touch it, leave something there, etc.
I asked why it was there (the village temple was elsewhere, by the road). He said that some years prior they'd encountered it in the field while digging so pulled it out, cleaned it up and put it there. Who knows how old it was...a hundred years? Hundreds of years? More? I certainly had no expertise to tell. But it still worked fine so was still "in use".
I imagine it's been stolen and/or sold off by now.
(Speaking of ancient relics: despite then-decades old land reform and civil rights, it seemed like the old feudal system still operated de facto. Sigh.)
I asked why it was there (the village temple was elsewhere, by the road). He said that some years prior they'd encountered it in the field while digging so pulled it out, cleaned it up and put it there. Who knows how old it was...a hundred years? Hundreds of years? More? I certainly had no expertise to tell. But it still worked fine so was still "in use".
I imagine it's been stolen and/or sold off by now.
(Speaking of ancient relics: despite then-decades old land reform and civil rights, it seemed like the old feudal system still operated de facto. Sigh.)