A ground-breaking discovery of a secret tomb at one of the new seven wonders of the world has been made by a team of researchers, including academics from the University of St Andrews.Apparently originating with this press release, the follow has unsurprisingly caught the attention of the media:Professor Richard Bates, from the St Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Science, was part of a collaboration carrying out research at Al-Khazneh, the Treasury Building, at the World Heritage Site of Petra, Jordan.
The team found a long-buried tomb with the remains of 12 ancient skeletons beneath the iconic building where more than a million visitors a year come to visit and the unexpected discovery now features in a new Discovery Channel documentary. ...
One skeleton in the chamber was found clutching a ceramic vessel.Not the Holy Grail then. Keep looking.Adventurer and presenter Josh Gates said: “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.”
Detailed examination of the vessel reveals it to be the top part of a broken jug, likely dating to the first century BC.
Seriously, congratuations to my University of St Andrews colleagues and their collaborators on this important discovery in a place one would have thought to have been comprehensively explored already.
Also seriously, keep an eye out for some scrolls in one of those caves.
For many PaleoJudaica posts on the ancient Nabatean capital city of Petra in Jordan, see here and links, plus here, here, and here.
Cross-file under Nabatean (Nabataean) Watch.
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