Sci & Tech

Ancient Chinese BLING: 1,500-year-old skeleton found buried in golden jewellery and 5,000 beads

• Tomb found in Datong City when researchers were surveying the area
• The skeleton was in a coffin with the skull resting on a pillow of lime
• She wore a pendant with a sequin-bead pattern and gold earrings
• Earrings were decorated with gold, teardrop-shaped designs and gems

Around 1,500 years ago, a woman named Farong - the wife of a Chinese magistrate - was laid to rest in all her finery.

The remains of her skeleton - still draped in her exquisite jewellery - have now been unearthed in a tomb in China.

The ancient bling includes a necklace of 5,000 beads and 'exquisite' goldne earrings, archaeologists have reported.

Around 1,500 years ago, a woman named Farong was laid to rest wearing fantastic jewellery. The skeleton was found in a tomb in China, along with a series of artefacts. The researchers were surveying the area before a construction project when they found the tomb

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT FARONG?

The epitaph on the tomb reads: 'Han Farong, the wife of Magistrate Cui Zhen'.

The tomb dates back to 1,500 years ago - a few decades before the collapse of the Northern Wei dynasty in 534 AD.

She had curly hair, deep-set eyes and a high nose.

She wore a pendant with a sequin-bead pattern on its neck and an inverted lotus flowers carved into it.

Her earrings were decorated with gold, teardrop-shaped designs inlaid with gemstones.

The tomb was discovered in Datong City, China, in 2011 and dates back to 1,500 years ago - a few decades before the collapse of the Northern Wei dynasty in 534 AD.

'The skull rests on a pillow of lime, and inside the pillow are two bricks with rope patterns,' the archaeologists, from the Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology, wrote in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

The researchers were surveying the area before a construction project when they came across the tomb.

'The human figure has curly hair, deep-set eyes and a high nose; wears a pendant with a sequin-bead pattern on its neck; and has inverted lotus flowers carved under its shoulders,' the researchers said.