The extremely important study was published on the scientific site “Live Science” and showed the presence of the element silver and silver chloride in the bracelets of Queen Hetepe, the mother of King Khufu and the wife of the King Snefru, the founder of the Fourth Dynasty. .
Sherif Shaaban, an official with the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and a lecturer at the Faculty of Archeology at Cairo University, explains that this study has caused a change in cultural, historical and archaeological circles, because silver was one of the few elements in ancient Egyptian civilization.
The Egyptian antiquities researcher and expert explained to Sky News Arabia the characteristics of what this study indicates:
• These bracelets were found in 1925 in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres, and were found by the American discoverer, George Reisner. The contents of the tomb were shared between the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in United States, and among them were these researched bracelets.
• The discovery of silver in the fourth millennium BC indicates the existence of economic and commercial relations between Egypt and Greece, the latter being the source of silver industry and export .
• The Greek civilization, in particular the Minoan civilization of the Cyclades islands in the south of the country, produced metals at the beginning of the Bronze Age, in particular silver, and had enormous commercial markets in the south of the Mediterranean basin.
• It is likely that Egypt has entered into trade agreements with Greece through a trade intermediary or intermediary center, namely the city of Byblos or Byblos in Lebanon.
• It is known that King Senefru, the father of King Khufu, brought cedars from Byblos to make the doors of the temples and the wooden interior parts of the pyramids.
• Rare cases where silver appeared clearly in Egyptian civilization, such as the sarcophagus of King Besusennes I, the founder of the 21st dynasty, where he had a magnificent silver sarcophagus, and therefore he is known as the king of money compared to King Tutankhamun, who called him the Golden King because of the abundance of gold in his day.
• The sarcophagus of King Shashang of the 22nd Dynasty was shaped like a falcon’s head and is considered one of the few silver masterpieces of Egyptian civilization, unlike gold, which is very common in the world. ‘Ancient Egypt, where the Egyptians controlled Nubia, whose name was in the ancient Egyptian language Neb or Nebo, meaning the land of gold.
Regarding the importance of this discovery, the expert in Egyptian antiquities explains that:
• Silver was not widespread in Egypt, the ancient Egyptians did not know about silver until the 9th or 10th century BC when certain precious metals were imported from abroad, such as silver.
• The study reveals that the ancient Egyptian civilization was aware of an extensive trade with Greece indirectly since the fourth millennium BC, contrary to what was believed to be this relationship from the 9th to the 8th century BC, when Egypt began to cooperate with Greece. mercenaries of this period.
• It reveals the depth of relations between Egypt and Greece, and that Egypt had a commercial presence since the fourth millennium BC.
Sherif Shaaban, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Archeology at Cairo University, points out that this study is not a new archaeological discovery, but rather a rediscovery of a group of existing antiquities through studies. and scientific research, which allows the rearrangement of historical events. through advanced science and its methods that help to conduct research on artifacts. .
He pointed out that there is an earlier model for re-examining the effects and their significance when research was carried out on King Tutankhamun’s dagger, which was discovered in 1925 next to his mummy, and studies were carried out to this. subject in 2014 by Egyptians. , Spanish and Chinese missions, revealing that the dagger was made of iron which interfered with It contains 11% cobalt and nickel, while the highest percentage of cobalt and nickel in iron on the Earth’s surface exceeded not 1%.
This indicates that the ancient Egyptians used iron that reached Earth from other planets through meteors and meteorites from the sky to Earth, such as the meteorites that fell in Anatolia and were imported by the Egyptians during the New Kingdom.
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