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Bronze Age beads found in Denmark match the blue glass inlays found in Tutankhamun's gold death mask, scientists claim.

The discovery hints at some of the trade routes between Denmark and the ancient civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia 3,400 years ago.

It also provides new details that could link the Egyptian cult of worshiping the sun with a similar sun cult that developed at the same time in Denmark.

An analysis of jewellery retrieved from Bronze Age burial sites reveals that Denmark and ancient Egypt traded with one another 3,400 years ago, The women from the Ølby site is pictured. Next to the woman's left arm was a blue glass bead from Egypt, two amber beads, and two small bronze spirals

Twenty-three blue beads unearthed in an Ølby grave, south of Copenhagen, were analysed using a technique known as plasma-spectrometry, according to a report in Science Nordic.

The method allowed researchers to analyse the fragile bead and compare the chemical composition of trace elements with material from Amarna in Egypt and Nippur in Mesopotamia.

The comparison showed that the chemicals matched exactly, marking the first time that Bronze Age Egyptian and Middle Eastern cobalt glass has been found outside the Mediterranean area.

The blue beads were found in the grave of what is thought to have been a wealthy lady who lay in a hollowed-out oak trunk, wearing an overarm bracelet made of amber beads and other jewellery.  

Researchers analysed the fragile bead in the Ølby grave, south of Copenhagen, and compare the chemical composition of elements with material from Amarna in Egypt and Nippur in Mesopotamia

Bronze Age beads (pictured) found in Denmark match the blue glass inlays found in Tutankhamen's gold death mask, scientists claim. The discovery hints at some of the trade routes between Denmark and the ancient civilisations in Egypt and Mesopotamia in the Bronze Age 3,400 years ago

The beads had exactly the same chemical composition as ancient Egyptian cobalt glass found in Amarna

The same material was found in Tutankhamun's death mask (pictured), and a number of other burial sites

THE BRONZE AGE BEADS THAT ARE WORTH THEIR WEIGHT IN GOLD

These 4,000-year-old Bronze Age beads, and worth their weight in gold

If you dug these up in your garden, you probably wouldn't think twice about throwing them away. 

But the unassuming objects are 4,000-year-old Bronze Age beads, and worth their weight in gold.

Unearthed from a prehistoric burial chest on Dartmoor last year, they were heralded as one of the most significant historical finds in more than a century.

Jane Marchand, senior archaeologist from Dartmoor National Park, described the haul as one of the most important discoveries since the 19th century.

She said: 'The amber beads probably came from the Baltic – and meant they were long-distance trading 4,000 years ago.

'These artefacts show Dartmoor wasn't the isolated, hard-to-reach place we thought it was. This mystery is unfolding.

'This has been fascinating to work on, but it's just one piece in a puzzle. The story is only part-told.'

Scientists believe most of the beads were Mesopotamian and made from melted quartz sand and ash from Tigris river grass. Two of them came from Egypt. 

Previous studies had already shown that Bronze Age amber was exported from Nordic areas to Egypt, with Tutankhamun and other pharaohs burial chambers containing the material.

Researchers from the National Museum in Denmark and the Institute of Archaeomaterials Research in France say the latest study shows that as well as amber, Denmark and Egypt traded glass 3,400 years ago

They also believe it links two ancient sun cults, based on the fact that sunlight is able to penetrate the surface of both amber and glass.  

The study claims that burying amber and glass may have constituted as a prayer to the sun, to ensure that the dead body would share its fate with the sun on an eternal journey.