Italian archaeologists have uncovered a complex, ancient necropolis that may shed new light on the elite members of an ancient Alpine society.

The majority of the beads were found in a large cavern, worn by mostly female skeletons estimated to be between the ages 18 and 34 at their time of deaths. Researchers also found an additional 2,000 beads scattered in a corridor leading to another chamber, and 90 beads (along with a dagger) in the upper level of a second chamber.

Archaeologists have discovered a "monumental necropolis" dating to the pre-Roman Iron Age (500 BCE-1 BCE) in Santa Croce, according Italian officials. The ancient cemetery found in the Northern Italian city of Trento includes at least 200 individual tombs.