Workers at a business park construction project near the northeast Hungarian town of Nagykálló have unearthed a series of graves and the remains of a Scythian village that enjoyed prosperity in the time of the Roman Empire, reports historical portal mult-kor.hu.

The contents of the graves are expected to be particularly rich as the custom of the time dictated that knives, broaches, and bronze figures, as well as dishes and ceramics containing food be buried with the dead to ease their passage in the afterlife.

A gold hair-band and a silver mirror have already been recovered from the site.

The Scythians were an Iranian-speaking nomadic people who dominated the present-day middle east, although the exact definitions of their origin and culture are debated.