885 - Thumb ring of a Nubian archer, Late Period, mid- to late 1st millennium B.C.

Thumb ring of a Nubian archer, Late Period, mid- to late 1st millennium B.C. A thumb ring ground to a conical shape on the outside, with a cylindrical bore in the center that widens slightly toward the openings. Outer diameters at both ends are 3.5 cm and 5 cm. Diameter of the central bore is 2.4 cm. Height: 3 cm. The material is a specific variety of diorite, as seen in similar specimens from the Louvre (Inventory No. E14974) or the National Museums Liverpool (Inventory No. 49.47.822). The rings served as protection for Nubian archers in Egyptian service when drawing the bowstring. Nubians served in the Egyptian army beginning in the second half of the 3rd millennium. During the Late Period, Nubians (who called themselves Kushites) ruled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty (744 to 656 BCE). A bronze statue of a Kushite king from the Kingdom of Meroe in present-day Sudan, dating from the 1st century B.C., depicts the ruler wearing a thumb ring of the same shape, which also identifies him as a military leader (Sudanese National Museum in Khartoum—discovered in the 1970s on the Nile island of Argo in northern Sudan). Similar rings of the same type from the last centuries before Christ come from the necropolises of the Kushite capital, Meroe. In nearly perfect condition with only minimal wear (more elegantly shaped and better preserved than the piece in the Louvre). CULTURAL HERITAGE! Provenance: From the Belgian private collection of M. K., assembled in the 1970s. Condition: I