This everyday object did not look like this at all in ancient times.

But have they always had the shape we know today, or have they undergone a major evolution? One internet user got his hands on some old clothespins and asked his followers if they knew what he had found by sharing a photo.

The Facebook post generated a lot of reaction, and several people recognized the objects. “Old-fashioned clothespins. We used them to hang clean and wet clothes outside on the clothes horse to dry in the sun and fresh air!” read one of the comments.

Today, clothespins consist of two pieces of wood (or plastic) joined by a hinge at one end, with a spring mechanism to grip the laundry firmly against the line where the clothes are hung.

In the photo of the internet user in question, we see small wooden dowels with two legs, with a more rounded shape and without the spring system that we know today.

Now that we know what they are, we can easily make a connection with the clothespins we use every day. But before the photo was leaked, it was much harder to know what these wooden objects were.