British archaeologists uncover 2000-year-old undisturbed tomb at 'Indiana Jones' site

Petra, Jordan, is famous as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World and for its appearance in the 1989 movie "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade." Recently, the ancient city is back in the spotlight due to an incredible discovery by a team of British archaeologists. As reported by CNN, they uncovered at least 12 human skeletons and artifacts beneath a 2,000-year-old tomb in the heart of Petra. The tomb is located at Khaznah, the iconic pink sandstone monument also known as the "treasury," where the "Holy Grail" was hidden in "Indiana Jones."

Led by Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, executive director of the American Center of Research, the excavation followed the discovery of two tombs in 2003. There was speculation that more tombs might lie beneath the site, which has now been confirmed. The director and his team performed remote sensing on the site and discovered that the images were quite similar on the left and the right side of the monument, indicating that more tombs could be found beneath the surface. The team excavated the tomb in August and the most unique part about it was that it had been left completely undisturbed, unlike the many tombs discovered on the site. 

The remains are from Nabateans, ancient Arabian nomads who lived from the fourth century BC to 106 AD, as per the outlet. "This is a hugely rare discovery — in the two centuries that Petra has been investigated by archaeologists, nothing like this has been found before. Even in front of one of the most famous buildings in the world … there are still huge discoveries to be made," Josh Gates, host of Discovery Channel's "Expedition Unknown," pointed out. "We were hopeful of finding anything that might tell us more about the ancient people and place — human remains can be a really valuable tool in that regard. The burials in this tomb are articulated, so the bones haven’t been rummaged around and moved, so that's exceedingly rare," Creasman explained.

Dr. Richard Bates, a geophysicist, told NPR, "So the tomb actually contains about 12 skeletons. We think they are ranging in age between children and adults. And at this stage of the project, we don't actually know the sex of them because until you exhume them and do much more further analysis, that's the time that you would be able to discern that." He added, "We were able to take samples from around the skeletons of the sediment. And so we can date those. And the preliminary dates we've got back put it at about 100 BC to about 100 AD."

"The discovery is of international significance as very few complete burials from the early Nabataeans have ever been recovered from Petra before," Bates told The Independent. He continued, "The burials, their goods, and the human remains can all be expected to help fill the gaps of our knowledge in how Petra came to be and who the Nabaraenas were." However, the team also made another discovery. "When we spotted what looked like a chalice, all of us just froze. It looked nearly identical to the Holy Grail featured in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, set in the ancient building directly above the tomb. It was the ultimate moment of life imitating art," Gates told the outlet.