Her petite features and slim build would have marked her out as a beauty in any era.

And by using modern technology South Korean archaeologists have been able to recreate just how the 5ft servant girl would have looked 1,500 years ago, the first time such a task has been done in the country.

The life-size model of what is believed to be a 16-year-old who lived with a powerful family in the sixth century Gaya Kingdom (42-562) was unveiled today.

'We have excavated human bones on many occasions but it is the first time we created a full-scale model,' said Kang Soon-hyung, director of the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritageo.

However her beauty did not save her from a grisly fate as researchers believe she was buried alive with her dead masters.

Why this is reckoned to have happened is expected to be contained in a study on the Gayan custom of burying the living with the dead which is soon to be published.

The teenager's 5ft skeleton was used as a starting point for the model before layers of muscle and skin were added.

The project was carried out by sculptor-anatomy specialist Kim Byung-ha and CELL, a firm that does costumes for feature films.

Her remains were among those of four people that were unearthed during an excavation project carried out three years ago.

She had a short jawbone and thus had a rather wide face but had a long neck. The teenager's arms were short but she had long fingers and toes.

Her waist measured 21.5in and an examination of her bones has led scientists to speculate that she frequently knelt on her knees.