'Indiana Jones civilization' 2,000-year-old temple found submerged off Italian coast
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2,000-year-old temple submerged off the Italian coast near Naples, likely built by immigrants from Nabataea, an ancient Arabian kingdom.
Nabataea is known for Petra’s iconic rock-carved structures, including the Treasury, famously featured in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."
The Nabataean kingdom once controlled a trade network stretching from northern Arabia to the Mediterranean, dealing in incense, gold, ivory, and perfumes. Their wealth peaked in the first century A.D., exemplified by Petra’s Treasury.
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The temple, thought to have been used by Nabataean traders, was later buried under concrete and pottery, possibly due to the traders leaving the area, according to a study published in Antiquity on September 12.
Student Michele Stefanile with the Scuola Superiore Meridionale in Italy first began the underwater study in 2021 to search the area.
Camels seen in front of The Treasury in Petra, a famous archaeological site. Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the seven wonders of the world. Formerly an ancient Nabataean capital, today Petra is inhabited by The Bidoul Bedouins. (Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
"When I was a student, I was impressed by the presence of some Nabatean material found somewhere in the sea in Puteoli since the XVIII century, and I was also astonished that nobody really organized a hunt for this impressive historical testimony.," said Michele Stefanile, a maritime archaeologist at the Southern Graduate School in Naples to Fox News Digital.
The temple lies near Pozzuoli, around 10 miles east of Naples. During Roman times, Pozzuoli was known as Puteoli and served as a trading port.
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In 2023, researchers mapping the seafloor discovered two submerged rooms with Roman-style walls. The rooms, about 32 by 16 feet, contained two white marble altars, each with rectangular recesses that likely held sacred stones.
"It seems that we have a building dedicated to the Nabataean gods, but with Roman architecture and Latin inscription," Stefanile said to Live Science.
Aerial view of a recently-discovered Nabataean temple off the coast of Napoli in Italy. (Michele Stefanile, Antiquity)
Marble slabs in the rooms were inscribed in Latin with the phrase "Dusari sacrum," meaning "consecrated to Dushara," the deity of the Nabataean people.
Volcanic activity over centuries has submerged about 1.2 miles of Roman-era buildings near Pozzuoli, including warehouses and other structures from the ancient port. Artifacts recovered since the 18th century suggested a temple might be buried there, but its exact location was unknown until now.
Underwater photos taken by Michele Stefanile show leftover slabs from the Nabataean temple. (Michele Stefanile, Antiquity)
"Possibly after Trajan's conquest of Arabia in 106 A.D., the Nabataeans had no more possibility of free trading in Puteoli, and they possibly abandoned the harbor," Stefanile said to Live Science.
After Nabataea was annexed into the Roman Empire in A.D. 106, the inland trade routes controlled by the Nabataeans collapsed. The temple at Puteoli may have been buried in response to these changes.
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"The entire region is characterized by an intense volcanic activity, that caused the submersion of the whole ancient coastal strip at a depth of 0-6 meters," according to the Scuola Superirore Meridionale.
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