The team excavated the newly uncovered grave in August with a film crew. But the real surprise was what was in the tomb. While many tombs uncovered in Petra are found empty or destroyed, the chamber was filled with complete skeletal remains and grave goods made of bronze, iron and ceramics. The intact tomb found beneath the treasury offers rare insight into the lives of the Nabataeans, ancient Arab nomads whose desert empire dates from the 4th century B.C. B.C. to A.D. 106, Creasman said.

“This is an extremely rare discovery – nothing like it has ever been found in the two centuries that Petra has been studied by archaeologists,” Gates said. “Even in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world… there are still great discoveries to be made.”

Researchers say the significant find may be the largest collection of human remains found at one site in Petra, and it was featured on the season premiere of “Expedition Unknown” on Wednesday. (Discovery Channel is owned by CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.)

Discover Petra, a wonder of the world

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

The Treasury Department welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists each year and has also been featured in several films, most notably as the site of the Holy Grail in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Among the artifacts were several vessels, with a skeleton clutching a ceramic chalice that resembled the shape of the Holy Grail. “It really was this great moment in history where art was imitated,” Gates said.

The artifacts are extremely well preserved, Creasman said. However, although the human remains are intact, they are in a more delicate condition than expected. Their condition could be due to the humidity and seasonal flooding in Petra, as well as the porous sandstone around the tomb that traps moisture, he said. Mold was found on some skeletons.

Only a handful of graves uncovered in Petra in recent decades have had untouched burials found, Creasman said. Serious unrest was most likely due to travelers seeking shade and shelter in the desert, he added.

The two tombs uncovered under the left side of the Treasury two decades ago by archaeologists from the Jordan Department of Antiquities contained partial skeletal remains. However, the data has not been made public, so it is unclear how many people were found, Creasman said.

“We were hoping to find something that could tell us more about the ancient people and the place – human remains can be a really valuable tool in that regard,” Creasman said. “The burials in this grave are articulated, so the bones were not rummaged around and moved, so this is extremely rare.”

Rare insight into the ancient Nabataeans

One mystery that still surrounds the Nabataeans is their burial practices. In literature, Nabataean society is often described as more egalitarian, with the king more integrated into the lower classes than leaders of other civilizations, Creasman said. So far, there does not appear to be much difference between royal and regular burials in the Nabataean tombs found, so it is difficult to say whether the recently discovered tombs under the treasury were intended for kings.

Researchers also suspect that many of the textiles and jewelry typically found in Nabataean burials, such as cloth wrappings and necklaces and other beads that adorn the bodies, were lost due to moisture and floodwaters entering the tomb, Gates said.

As researchers continue to study the skeletons, Creasman said they are hopeful more details will emerge about who the people were in life. Researchers want to date the skeletons and artifacts and use extracted DNA to determine whether the dozen skeletons are related. Other analyzes could potentially help assess their diet and determine whether they were physically active, Creasman said.

“They must be extremely important people because there is such prime real estate where they are buried; It’s really the main entrance to the city,” Gates said. “I think finding out who they are will really help uncover some of the history of the Treasury Department.”

The CNN Wire
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