Every once in a while something amazing shows up for sale online.  I was looking around for uncommon items that were listed this week and I came upon a listing for that read "Sarmatian King's Gold Necklace Amulet & Amulet 1st Century BC". When I clicked on the auction to learn more, the description was a little bit more detailed, "Sarmatian - Persian Tribal King's Ritual Gold Pectoral Necklace".  The page then went on to give quite a detailed report of the history of the necklace and amulet as they related to Sarmatian society and how the discovery and documentation of them advanced scientific interests.

To be honest,  I really had no idea what the title even meant when I first saw it.  To be even more honest, it was not just the title that caught my eye.   The opening bid was just a "*little* bit above average for collectibles and antiques I've seen listed on eBay.  Just a hair over 8 million dollars for a starting bid.  That is not exactly a 97 cent estate clearing price.  Obviously this was something special and worth checking out.

I realize that most people who might be regular readers of my humble site might not be in the market for such an enormously valuable piece of history, but I thought some history buffs might find this pretty interesting.  This is a great example of why I just love to check out eBay.  If you have the money, you could actually bid on and own this artifact that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 2000 years old.  And you could do it while you watch TV in your living room!

This auction is actually for two amazing pieces that are being sold together by a private owner.   Both the gold pectoral amulet and the gold pectoral necklace  are symbols of power from the Sarmation civilization.  According to the listing, the fact that gold was not used in abundance by the Sarmations increases the rarity and value of the items.  The Sarmatians were a nomadic people who were active players in the time of the Roman Empire.  Up until now, there was very little known about them.  What was known was pieced together from the very few relics that had been found.  The relatively recent discovery of these new "Sarmation Treasures" brings enormous amounts of new information to light and opens up volumes to be learned about an entire culture which had previously been largely a mystery.

Ownership of these relics currently belongs to the Tamoikin Museum.  As I was reading up on this auction, I found a very interesting publication produced by the Tamoikins and available for the reading at their website.  The publication is titled "Solving the Last Unregulated Market of Art, Antiquity and Collectibles" and it is written to offer ways that these unbelievably valuable antiquities, that may be the last earthly connection to a long gone society, can be documented, managed and evaluated fairly.  If you are a serious collector or investor in ancient relics, I highly recommend a visit to read what they have to say.  They do not just spout off all of the problems with today's antiquities market, they also do their best to offer up solutions.

For me, there is a certain romance involved with the whole idea of purchasing such a rare treasure.   Listings like this one (and there are not many) remind me of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.   These artifacts don't just fall from the sky.  There is painstaking research and field work involved in finding them.  Scientists must use the skills of a detective to figure out likely places to start their searches and then put in countless hours of work during the actual hunt for the treasures.

I suppose it would be up to the owner, but if I had eight million dollars to invest in something like this, I would want to have it on display to share with the world.  I'm sure that just protecting it would involve a major investment of money, but if I had that kind of money, I think I'd spend it so that everyone could have the opportunity to appreciate a piece of our world's history.  Of course, besides football, the only TV I usually watch is either the History Channel, Discovery or Food Network.  I might not be representative of the majority of people out there.

So anyway dear reader, one of my stated missions on this site is to look for the unusual and hard to find items that get listed on eBay.  Sometimes this helps out people who want to sell things but who don't know where to start.  I really don't think you will find anything like this at your neighborhood garage sale.  This definitely qualifies as possibly the MOST uncommon collectible that I personally have ever run across in my years as an eBay buyer and seller.

If you are an investor in antiquities, take a look at the Tamoikin paper and see what you think.  I have absolutely no connection to their website or their publication, but I do think it is a good thing that someone has taken the initiative to provide a standard for the collecting, buying and selling of such important historical artifacts.  I believe that learning about our history and understanding how we, as a world, got where we are today is extremely important.  It is easy to neglect the past with all of the bells and whistles around us today, but it would be a sad mistake to do so.