Scientists discovered beads made from iron meteorites that fell to Earth in Egypt, but they were also crafted 2,000 years before the country's Iron Age, Live Science reported.

The beads were found in a tomb 5,000 years old, similar to a discovery in 1911 of nine beads in an ancient tomb, said lead study author Thilo Rehren,

Rehren, a University College London (UCL)-Qatar archaeology professor, and his team detailed their findings in a study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

"Even 100 years ago, [the beads] attracted attention as being something strange," Rehren told Live Science.

The tomb belonged to a teenage boy and the beads were strung together with other materials into a necklace. Early tests showed a high level of nickel, which often means the material is iron-made.

Rehren and his team were also able to find cobalt, phosphorus and germanium in the beads by scanning them with neutrons and gamma rays. Levels at which these elements were present could only mean the iron came from a meteorite and not from the Earth.

"It's really exciting, because we were able to detect sufficient cobalt and germanium in these beads to confirm they're meteoritic," Rehren said. "We had assumed this was the case for 100 years, but it's nice to be able to put an exclamation mark on the label, rather than a question mark."

Meteoric iron is very hard and appears in lumps, so someone like a blacksmith would have had to hammer the iron thin for it to be rolled into tubes. Unlike gold or copper, iron cannot be bent or shaped unless heated to extremely high temperatures.

"It's a much more elaborate operation and one that we assumed was only invented and developed in the Iron Age, which started maybe 3,000 years ago - not 5,000 years ago," Rehren said.

X-rays and other tests revealed the iron was likely hammered flat under extreme heat and then rolled around wooden sticks to form the tube-like form. Other stones found with the iron were made by more traditional means: drilling and carving.

"We are also excited to be able to see the internal structure of the beads, revealing how they were rolled and hammered into form," Rehren told the Telegraph. This is very different technology from the usual stone bead drilling, and shows quite an advanced understanding of how the metal smiths worked this rather difficult material."