Archaeologists have discovered dazzling jewels from an Ethiopian grave that revealed the 2,000-year-old link to Rome.

Spectacular 2,000-year-old treasures from the Roman empire and the Aksumite kingdom, which ruled parts of north-east Africa for several centuries before 940AD, have been discovered by British archaeologists in northern Ethiopia, the Guardian reported.

Louise Schofield, a former British Museum curator, named one grave "Sleeping Beauty," because the way the body and its grave goods had been positioned suggested that she had been beautiful and much-loved.

The woman was also wearing a necklace of thousands of tiny beads, and a beaded belt. The quality of the jewellery suggested that she was a person of very high status, able to command the very best luxurious goods. Other artefacts with her include Roman glass vessels, two perfectly preserved drinking beakers and a flask to catch the tears of the dead.

There was also a clay jug. Schofield hopes that its contents can be analysed. She believes it would have contained food and drink for the afterlife.

Although "Sleeping Beauty" was covered only with soil, her grave was cut into a rock overhang, which was why the finds survived intact.

The team also found buried warriors, with each skeleton wearing large iron bangles. They might have been killed in nearby battlefields.

Other finds include another female skeleton with a valuable necklace of 1,065 coloured glass beads, and, elsewhere, a striking glass perfume flask.