Silver in ancient Egyptian bracelets provides earliest evidence for long-distance trade between Egypt and Greece

Queen Hetepheres owned a number of items of jewellery, which help offer an insight into her life. (Supplied: Macquarie University via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Surviving tomb robbers and time, jewellery owned by ancient Egyptian royalty in around 2600 BC is helping shed new light on the beginnings of the globalised world.

An analysis of bracelets owned by Queen Hetepheres — the mother of King Khufu, who would go on to build the Great Pyramid — has found that Egypt and Greece were involved in long-distance trade earlier than previously known.