It's Steve (now in blog form)

Ebay is more than just the central hub of the illegal ivory trade, it also has some really incredible things now and again.  I just got something really cool.  The last time I was in Vegas I came across an odd shop in the Venetian.  It sells antiquities; ancient coins, helmets, jewelry, etc.  They also introduced me to the Roman archer’s ring.

Let me bore you for a minute with the details.  Western archers shoot off of their index, middle, and ring fingers.  Eastern archers shoot off the thumb.  Turns out that ancient Roman archers utilized the thumb technique as well.  They protected their thumbs with a specialized archer’s ring that lined in the inner length of the thumb with bronze.  

I didn’t even know that these existed until I saw the one in Vegas for $600.  Vegas shops are always a rip off so I headed to ebay.  Turns out that they are pretty readily available given the fact that they were so common.  After a few failed auctions I finally just won one for $60 with shipping.  It’s from the 1st to 4th century AD found in the Balkans (going to try and get more details to place which provence of the eastern Roman empire  that would be).

Here are some pics.  So cool.

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