Archaeologists in Romania have unearthed an extraordinary cache of ancient gold rings that a 6,500-year-old woman wore in her hair.
The trove in a Copper Age grave has 169 gold rings, 800 bone beads, and an ornate spiraled copper bracelet discovered by a team from the ??rii Cri?urilor museum in Oradea, Romania.
The jewelry was buried with an “extremely rich” woman, museum director Gabriel Moisa said, Romanian outlet Agerpres reports.
Archaeologists found out that these belonged to a woman based on the size of the skeleton and the fact that it was buried with no weapons. The skeleton also showed that she was tall and well-fed, and the good condition of her teeth further strengthened the idea that she enjoyed an elite status.
The finds date back 6,500 years to the Copper Age.
C?lin Ghemi?, the lead archaeologist on the project, described the finds as a “phenomenal discovery,” saying “such a treasure no longer exists in central and eastern Europe,” per Artnet news.
The bones have been sent to laboratories in Marosvásárhely and Holland for carbon dating and DNA testing.
“We want to find out what kind of culture the person belonged to and if the rings were made of gold from the Transylvanian Archipelago,” Moisa said.
The team’s excavations took place from March to June 2022.
Other excavations along the route of a new highway under construction in Romania have found remains from the Neolithic period, Bronze Age, the Roman Empire, and Medieval epoch, according to a post on the museum’s Facebook.