A tomb full of skeletons was found under the treasury in Petra

The team, in cooperation with a film crew, excavated the newly discovered grave in August. But the real surprise was what was inside the tomb. While many of the tombs discovered within Petra were found empty or disturbed, the chamber was filled with complete skeletal remains and funerary possessions made of bronze, iron and ceramic. An intact burial found beneath the treasury provides a rare look into Nabatean life. Ancient Arab Bedouins Chrisman said his desert kingdom flourished from the fourth century BC to 106 AD.

“This is an extremely rare find – in the two centuries that archaeologists have searched Petra, nothing like this has ever been found before,” Gates said. “Even in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world… there are still huge discoveries to be made.”

The significant discovery may be the largest collection of human remains ever found in one place inside Petra, according to researchers, and was showcased Wednesday in the season premiere of “Expedition Unknown.” (Discovery Channel is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company.)

Petra was voted as one of The New Seven Wonders of the World In the 2000s due to its unique architecture and the many secrets that still surround the city. While experts have debated the Treasury’s purpose for centuries, the most popular theory is that the monument served as a shrine, although no skeletal remains have been found inside the building itself, Gates said.

The treasury receives Hundreds of thousands of tourists annuallyIt also appeared in several films, most notably the location of the Holy Grail in the 1989 film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”

Among the artifacts were several vessels, with one skeleton found holding a ceramic cup resembling the shape of the Holy Grail. “It was this wonderful moment in history that emulates art,” Gates said.

The artifacts are extremely well preserved, Chrisman said. However, the human remains, although intact, are in a more delicate shape than expected. He added that their condition may be the result of humidity and seasonal flooding in Petra, as well as the porous sandstone surrounding the tomb that trapped moisture. Some skeletons were found with mold.

Only a few of the tombs discovered in Petra in the past few decades have been found with untouched burials, Chrisman said. He added that the dangerous disturbances were likely caused by travelers seeking shade and protection in the desert.

The two tombs below the left side of the treasury were discovered two decades ago by archaeologists from the Arab Republic of Egypt Jordanian Department of Antiquities Cressman said the skeletal remains are partial, but the data has not been published, so it is unclear how many individuals have been found.

“We were hoping to find anything that might tell us more about the people and ancient place — human remains can be a really valuable tool in that regard,” Chrisman said. “The burials in this grave are jointed, so the bones were not searched for or moved, so this is extremely rare.”

One of the mysteries that still surround the Nabataeans is their burial practices. In literature, Nabataean society is often described as more egalitarian, with the king more integrated with the lower classes than leaders of other civilizations, Chrisman said. So far, among the Nabataean tombs that have been found, there does not seem to be much difference between royal and ordinary burials, so it is difficult to determine whether the recently discovered tombs beneath the treasury were designed for kings.

Gates said researchers also suspect that many of the textiles and jewelry commonly found in Nabataean burials, such as the cloth wrappings, necklaces and other beads that adorned bodies, were lost due to moisture and floodwater seeping into the tomb.

As researchers continue to study the skeletons, Chrisman said they hope more details about who the people were in life will emerge. Researchers would like To date the skeletons and artifacts as well as use the extracted DNA to determine if the ten skeletons are related to each other. Other analyzes may be able to help evaluate their diet and reveal whether they have poor physical function, Chrisman said.

“They must have been very important people, because the place where they were buried is located in prime real estate; it is really the main entrance to the city,” Gates said. “I think getting to know who they are will really help unlock part of the Treasury story.”