Queen Hetepheres' Silver Bracelets Shed Light on Trade Networks in Ancient Egypt

May 30, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Egypt has no domestic silver ore sources and silver is rarely found in the Egyptian archaeological record until the Middle Bronze Age. Bracelets found in the tomb of queen Hetepheres I — mother of king Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza (date of reign 2589-2566 BCE) — form the largest and most famous collection of silver artifacts from early Egypt. In new research, scientists from Macquarie University and elsewhere analyzed samples from queen Hetepheres’ bracelets using several state-of-the-art techniques to understand the nature and metallurgical treatment of the metal and identify the possible ore source. Their results indicate that the silver was most likely obtained from the Cyclades (Seriphos, Anafi, or Kea-Kithnos) or perhaps the Lavrion mines in Attica. It excludes Anatolia as the source with a fair degree of certainty. This new finding demonstrates, for the first time, the potential geographical extent of commodity procurement networks utilized by the Egyptian state during the early Old Kingdom at the height of the Pyramid-building age.



Two silver bracelets of queen Hetepheres. Image credit: Sowada et al., doi: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2023.103978.


Silver artifacts first appeared in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE but the original source then, and in the 3rd millennium, is unknown.

Ancient Egyptian texts don’t mention any local sources, but an older view, derived from the presence of gold in silver objects, plus the high silver content of Egyptian gold and electrum, holds that silver was derived from local sources.

An alternative view is that silver was imported to Egypt, possibly via Byblos on the Lebanese coast, owing to many silver objects found in Byblos tombs from the late fourth millennium.

The tomb of queen Hetepheres I was discovered at Giza in 1925 by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts joint expedition.

Hetepheres was one of Egypt’s most important queens: wife of 4th Dynasty king Sneferu and mother of Khufu, the greatest builders of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2180 BCE).

More:
https://www.sci.news/archaeology/queen-hetepheres-silver-bracelets-11961.html