Treasures buried for 2,000 years were unearthed in northern Ethiopia by British archaeologists. A six-week excavation of the ancient city of Aksum - of the Aksumite kingdom, which ruled parts of northeast Africa for several centuries before 940AD - yielded 11 graves with "extraordinary" artifacts.
Louise Schofield, a former curator at The British Museum, led the excavation. Archaeologists discovered first and second century artifacts that suggest the Romans were involved in trade hundreds of years before previously thought, according to The Guardian.
"Every day we had shed-loads of treasure coming out of all the graves," Schofield told The Ethiopian Observer. "I was blown away: I'd been confident we'd find something, but not on this scale."
Some of the graves were warriors, according to Archaeology Magazine, but Schofield was especially taken by the grave of a woman she named "Sleeping Beauty." "She was curled up on her side, with her chin resting on her hand, wearing a beautiful bronze ring," Schofield said. "She was buried gazing into an extraordinary Roman bronze mirror. She had next to her a beautiful and incredibly ornate bronze cosmetics spoon with a lump of kohl eyeliner."
The jewelry - including a necklace made of thousands of beads - suggests the woman in the grave was of very high status. Other luxurious goods with "Sleeping Beauty" included two Roman glass drinking beakers and a flask to catch the tears of the dead.
There was also a clay jug that Schofield said she would like to have analyzed. It could have contained food and drink for the afterlife.
Despite only being covered in soil, "Sleeping Beauty's" grave site was cut into a rock overhang, which is why Schofield believes the findings were so well preserved.
Excavations were paid for by the Sainsbury family's Headley Trust, the Tigray Trust and by individual donations, according to The Guardian.
