A prehistoric grave with 169 gold rings was found close to the Biharia community in Bihor County, Criana, Romania by archaeologists. The finding was uncovered while building a new road that links the city of Oradea with the A3 freeway.
A multi-national team comprising institutions from all across Romania and Hungary carried out excavations from March through the end of June, uncovering three Neolithic sites, two from the middle to late Bronze Age, two from the Roman Period, and two from the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists have discovered a Tiszapolgár woman’s grave nearby Biharia, according to a press statement from the Tarii Crisurilor Museum.
In Central Europe, the Tiszapolgár culture (4500–4000 BC) was an neolithic archaeological culture that was found in the Great Hungarian Plain, the Banat, Crișana and Transylvania, Eastern Slovakia, and the Ukrainian Zakarpattia Oblast.
The team’s leader, Dr. Călin Ghemiş from the Tarii Crisurilor Museum, described how the woman was interred with 169 gold rings that had been worn in her hair, a multi-spiral copper bracelet, two golden beads, and over 800 bone beads.
Based on an initial examination of the deceased’s teeth and stature, it is thought that she was buried as a high-status woman. This is corroborated further by the absence of weapons traditionally associated with male graves in Tiszapolgár culture.
According to the news of Heritage Daily, in addition to DNA testing and other anthropological research, samples have been sent to labs in Romania and the Netherlands for carbon-14 analysis in order to acquire more precise dating.
The team also discovered remnants of two homes close to the village of Sântandrei during the project’s larger excavations, which contained ceramics dating from the second century BC to the second century AD. Also discovered a Sarmatian settlement from the third to fourth century close to Biharia, where they discovered a female skeleton interred with many pieces of jewelry from the necropolis.