Jewel bedecked skeleton

A 2000-year-old woman found buried in a Russian tomb in 2018 was bedecked in fine jewels from the Roman Empire. The remains of the high-status female was found in a tomb in the Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Two rings on her fingers were made with a cutting edge technology.

Her remains surprised archaeologists, in part due to the fact the jewellery was of Roman origin. The ancient woman is probably from the Alans warrior people who made incursions into the Caucasus in the first and second centuries AD. She was buried alongside a warrior and two other men.

The rings were cast from transparent white glass with golden fibres from the same material, with a dark glass in the middle. It is Roman-made and would have been extremely expensive, as the barbarian world had no glass production at that time.

The beads on her shoes were made of glass and carnelian. She went to the afterlife wearing a bright violet amethyst medallion. The high status burial appears to be a family grave. The woman could have been the wife of a renowned warrior or tribal chief.