A tourist rides a camel at the Ministry of Finance site in Petra, Jordan, in December 2022. Archaeologists have discovered a hidden grave there.

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: 12 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, probably a mausoleum, was carved by the Nabataeans about 2,000 years ago. Petra was the capital of the Nabataeans, who carved many elaborate structures from pink rock. The city is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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

“If you look at all the other graves in the Petra area, few have ever contained human remains, and these are very fragmentary, whereas this one has 12 complete bodies,” he told NPR.

Bates said the discovery not only sheds light on the rituals associated with the birth and death practices of the Nabataeans, but also: “By analyzing the skeletal material, teeth and bones, we can say something about their lifestyle. This will give us a window into the life of the Nabataeans that we have simply never had access to before.”

A local team of archaeologists was given rare permission to enter the Treasury building. Bates operates ground radar as part of the team. “That’s when we discovered the signals that I interpreted as cavities in the subsurface,” he said.

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

Discovery expedition unknown

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Discovery expedition unknown

He estimates the new chamber to be about 18 feet by 18 feet and 9 feet high, and tentative dating puts it at about the first century B.C.E. BC to the first century AD lies in the middle of the Nabataean Kingdom. The civilization existed from around the 4th century BC. until its annexation by the Romans in 106 AD

Archaeologists had discovered evidence of this tomb around 2003, but the site was closed at that time due to lack of funds, Bates said. According to the Petra Tourism Authority, in 2004, individual tombs were discovered in the Ministry of Finance that were believed to be royal tombs.

The discovery of the tomb occurred over the summer, but will now be made public as part of the show Expedition unknown on the Discovery Channel.

An ancient ceramic vessel was discovered in the grave.

Discovery expedition unknown

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By coincidence, the crew also discovered that a skeleton was holding a ceramic vessel that resembled a famous goblet 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 the Treasury Department is still puzzling. “When was this remarkable structure built and why? Little did we know that this excavation could completely transform our knowledge of the Treasury and help solve the mysteries of the Nabataean people.”

In an email to NPR, Creasman also acknowledged the work of the project's co-directors: Fadi Bala'awi, 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 for the project depends on funding.

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

“There is evidence from geophysics that there are other graves there. …A lot of things from here are basically going to be pretty expensive. So who knows when that will happen?”