A tourist rides a camel at the Treasury site in Petra, Jordan, in December 2022. Archaeologists have discovered a hidden tomb at the site.

Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images

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Khalil Mazraawi/AFP via Getty Images

Archaeologists say they have made a remarkable discovery at a site already known for its rich ancient history: twelve complete skeletons in a tomb beneath one of Jordan’s biggest tourist attractions.

The remains were found beneath the Treasury, also called Al Khazneh, in the ancient city of Petra – famous as a landmark in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Treasury, believed to be a mausoleum, was carved out by the Nabataeans about 2,000 years ago. Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, who carved many intricate structures out of rose-colored rocks. The city is now on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Richard Bates, a professor of geophysics at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who was part of the archaeological team, said the discovery will help researchers learn more about ancient people.

“If you look at all the other tombs in the Petra area, only a few have ever contained human remains, and they are very fragmentary, while there are twelve complete bodies in them,” he told NPR.

Bates said the discovery not only sheds light on the rituals involved in the birth and death practices of the Nabataeans, but also, “by analyzing the skeletal material, teeth and bones, we can tell things about their lifestyle. about the lives of the Nabataeans that we have never had access to before.”

A local archaeological team was given the rare permission to enter the Treasury building. As part of the team, Bates used ground-penetrating radar. “Then we discovered the signals, which I interpreted as voids in the subsurface,” he said.

A skeleton is one of twelve discovered buried beneath the Treasury of Petra.

Discovery’s expedition unknown

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Discovery’s expedition unknown

The new room is about 5.5 by 5 meters and 2.5 meters high, he estimates, and preliminary dating places the room from about the first century BC to the first century AD, in the middle of the Nabataean kingdom. The civilization existed approximately from the 4th century BC until it was annexed by the Romans in 106 AD

Archaeologists had discovered evidence of this grave around 2003, but the dig site was closed at the time due to lack of funding, Bates said. According to Petra’s tourist office, which says they were royal tombs, individual tombs were discovered near the Treasury in 2004.

The discovery of the grave took place over the summer, but is now being published as part of the show Expedition unknown on Discovery Channel.

An ancient ceramic vessel was discovered in the grave.

Discovery’s expedition unknown

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Discovery’s expedition unknown

By chance, the crew also discovered a skeleton holding a ceramic vessel, similar to a famous chalice from the Indiana Jones movie.

Archaeologist Pearce Paul Creasman of the American Center of Research, who led the team, said in a press statement that mysteries still remain about the Treasury. “When was this remarkable structure built, and why? Little did we know, this excavation could completely change what we know about the Treasury and help solve the mysteries of the Nabataean people.”

In an email to NPR, Creasman also praised the work of the project’s co-directors: Fadi Bala’awi, the director general of Jordan’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities; and Fares Braizat, the chief commissioner of the Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority.

What happens next with the project comes down to financing.

“The next step for this series of discoveries is to obtain funding to properly exhume at least one of the bodies and do a full study on it,” Bates said, with the goal of examining all the bodies.

“There are indications from geophysics that there are other graves out there. A lot of where we go from here will actually be quite expensive. So who knows when that will happen?”