Posted on December 21st by Laura Geggel

These jewels were buried along with 155 people who were buried.

A "lotus" pendant inlaid with precious stones was unearthed from a group of tombs in Cyprus, similar to the pendant worn by the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The pendant is one of hundreds of gorgeous tomb objects from the Mediterranean region unearthed at the site, including gems, ceramics and jewelry.

Archaeologists from the New Swedish Cyprus Expedition first unearthed two Bronze Age tombs in the ancient city of Hara Sultan Turk in 2018, both of which are underground tombs. 155 human remains and 500 burial objects were found in the tomb, layered on top of each other, indicating that the tomb has been used for several generations.

Peter Fischer, professor emeritus of historical studies and head of excavation at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said in a statement: "These findings indicate that these are family tombs of the city's ruling elite." "For example, we found a gold necklace. The skeleton of a 5-year-old child with, gold earrings and gold headdress. This may be the child of a strong and wealthy family."

Related: In Photos: The Life and Death of King Tutankhamun 

Tomb objects include jewelry and other souvenirs made of gold, silver, bronze and ivory, as well as utensils from different cultures. "We also found a ceramic bull," Fisher said. "The corpse of this hollow bull has two openings: one on the back, filled with liquid, possibly wine, and one on the nose to drink. Apparently, they held a banquet in the room to commemorate their dead."

At the same time, other burial objects include red carnelian from India, blue lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and amber from around the Baltic Sea-these valuable items indicate that the Bronze Age people of Cyprus participated in a huge trade network.​​​ The statement said that archaeologists also found evidence of trade with ancient Egypt, including gold jewelry, scarabs (beetle-shaped amulets with hieroglyphs) and fish remains imported from the Nile Valley.

The archaeological team determined the age of the gold jewelry by comparing it with similar discoveries in Egypt. Fischer said: “Comparison shows that most of the items came from Nefertiti and her husband Echnaton [also spelled as King Tutankhamun’s father Akhenaten]”, about 1350 BC. "It's like a gold pendant we found: a lotus flower inlaid with precious stones. Nefertiti wears similar jewelry." 

The excavation team also discovered a cylindrical seal made of hematite, a mineral with a metallic hue. The seal is engraved with a cuneiform inscription of Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) deciphered by archaeologists.

"The text is composed of three lines and three names are mentioned. One is the god Amuru worshipped in Mesopotamia. The other two are the kings and fathers and sons in history. We recently wrote other texts on the clay tablets of the same period They successfully tracked them down in the 18th century BC," Fischer said. "We are currently trying to determine why the seal will eventually reach Cyprus, more than 1,000 kilometers [620 miles] from where it was manufactured."

——Photo: Chariot tombs from the early Bronze Age 

— Photo: Tombs of elite members of ancient nomadic tribes 

—Photo Gallery: Ancient Treasures Found in Russia 

Fischer said that an analysis of the ceramic vessels in the tombs showed that their production styles changed over time, which also helped determine the age of these discoveries. 

Next, archaeologists plan to analyze the DNA of the bones buried in the tomb. "This will reveal the relationship between different individuals and whether there are immigrants from other cultures. Considering the huge trade network, this is not impossible," Fischer said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Laura is the editor of Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archeology and animals. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a website about autism research. For her coverage in a weekly newspaper near Seattle, she has won multiple awards from the Association of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, and an advanced certificate in scientific writing from New York University.

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