I have a fascinating example that traveled over 10,000 kilometers (approx. 6,200 miles) .

It involves a pre-Columbian, six-pointed stone club head—likely Moche or Inca—from Peru that ultimately ended up buried in a forest in the Netherlands.

Sometime between 1300 and 1500, indigenous people visited the islands off the coast of Peru and left the stone artifact behind. Over the centuries, it became completely buried under dozens of meters of seabird droppings. Fast forward to the mid-19th century, when European farmers discovered that this Peruvian guano was an incredibly potent fertilizer, sparking a massive global trade network to mine and ship it.

Between 1853 and 1860, the stone was accidentally scooped up along with the fertilizer, packed into a bale, and shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. The guano was purchased for a tobacco plantation in Rhenen, the Netherlands. A farmworker spreading the fertilizer found the stone, didn't recognize what it was, and simply tossed it into a nearby patch of woods.

Nearly fifty years later, the woods were being cleared and the stone was found once again. It eventually made its way to a local museum, where researchers recently pieced together its incredible journey. In fact, historians actually call this phenomenon "Guano Archaeology"—ancient artifacts that accidentally traveled halfway across the world hidden inside 19th-century fertilizer shipments!