admin A remarkable discovery from recent research has once again surpassed all expectations, demonstrating its globalized character since the early Bronze Age. The study, centered around an intriguing silver bracelet that adorned the wrist of Queen Hetepheres I of the Fourth Dynasty, reveals trade networks between ancient Egyptians and Greeks dating back to 2600 BC. These results challenge previous assumptions and shed light on the extensive and long-standing trade ties that extended beyond Egypt’s borders. From the enchanting Cyclades to Greece’s bustling Labron, Discoveries vividly depicts a world linked by trade and treasure.
A Long Network: Trade and Treasure
This study, published in the prestigious Journal of Archeological Science, analyzes ancient Egyptian silver artifacts, revealing not only more extensive but also much older Revealed a trade network with the ancient Greeks. believed it. The ancient Egyptians seem to have been actively involved in prosperous trade networks that stretched far beyond their borders.
A trade route that spans the Bronze Age Cyclades, the Greek cities of Anatolia (now Turkey), the enchanting island of Crete and bustling Lavrion on mainland Greece.
“Egypt has no native sources of silver ore, and silver is rare in the Egyptian archaeological record up to the Middle Bronze Age,” write the authors, a team of archaeologists from Australia, France and the United States. . “Surprisingly, lead isotope ratios are consistent with ores from the Cyclades (Greece, Aegean Islands) and, to a lesser extent, those from Lavrion (Attica, Greece), as previously suggested. “We can rule out with a high degree of certainty a source in Anatolia (West Asia),” the authors of the report wrote.
These fine silver artifacts sat for decades without a thorough analysis. The lead author of the report, Karin Sowada, of the Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University, Sydney, was the driving force behind this groundbreaking study and report.
“This kind of ancient trading network helps us to understand the beginnings of the globalized world,” Dr Sowada told the ABC. “For me that’s a very unexpected finding in this particular discovery. Egypt was known for its gold, but had no local sources of silver. This period of early Egypt is a little bit terra incognita from the perspective of silver,” Dr Sowada continued. She added that the bracelets represented “essentially the only large-scale silver that exists for this period of the third millennium BC”.
Queen Hetepheres: Daughter of God – The Hidden Mystery
Queen Hetepheres, known as “Daughter of God”, owned during the storied Old Kingdom from 2700 BC. She held an important position in the direct royal lineage of the Fourth Dynasty of Egypt until 2200 BC. She married King Sneferu, bore her son and successor Khufu, and built a great tomb and a pyramid as her eternal resting place.
The whereabouts of Queen Hetepheres’ tomb remained a mystery for centuries until it was accidentally discovered in 1925. Researchers uncovered a previously hidden mineshaft at Giza, where they found her empty sarcophagus. Hetepheres was initially thought to have been buried near her husband’s pyramid at Dahshur, but her tomb was attacked by robbers, and her son Khufu ordered her tomb to be moved to Giza.
Research and Analysis: A Fine Science
The exact location of Queen Hetepheres’ body and other valuable relics buried with her remains unknown. Dr. Towada emphasized, “These objects give us a glimpse into their lives and way of life.” From the collection of the famous Boston Museum of Fine Arts. They used state-of-the-art techniques such as mass XRF and were able to reveal important elemental and mineral compositions with the help of micro-XRF, SEM-EDS, X-ray diffraction and MC-ICP-MS. . In addition, the team used lead isotope ratios to gain valuable insight into the nature of possible silver ore sources, metallurgical processing, and more.
To their surprise, the analysis revealed the possible presence of silver, silver chloride, and even trace amounts of copper chloride in the mineral. But what surprised them was the lead isotope ratio. This ratio corresponded only to that of silver in the Aegean, Attica, and Anatolian regions that flourished during the pre-Hellenistic Bronze Age.
Further examination of cross-sections of bracelet fragments that belonged to Queen Hetepheres revealed intriguing details about the craftsmanship used to create these ancient treasures. ABC revealed that the metal had been repeatedly annealed and cold-hammered during an elaborate manufacturing process.
Perhaps the most important result of this study is the conclusive evidence that Egypt and Greece were involved in long-distance trade much earlier than previously thought. In fact, the study provides the first scientific evidence that silver came from the Greek Aegean Islands, revealing a previously unknown aspect of ancient trade networks.
Information on Middle Kingdom (2040 BC-1782 BC) and New Kingdom (1550 BC-1069 BC) trading networks in Egypt is better documented, but Middle Kingdom silver The application of lead isotope analysis to objects has already been documented. The biggest discovery from this study.
“In the Middle and New Kingdoms, much later, there are still large numbers of papyri containing administrative and commercial documents,” said Dr. One of the authors, Gillan Davis of the Catholic University of Australia, told ABC. “But for the Old Kingdom, it was so long ago that most of the documents have been lost,” she concluded.
Top image: Bottom, a Hetepheres bracelet in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MFA 47.1700. Top, an electrotype reproduction made in 1947, MFA 52.1837 (Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition) Source: © April 2023 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston/
