Ancient City of Petra Tombs Reveal 61 Burials and Islamic Gold MedallionThe Nabataeans spoke Arabic but used Aramaic as their written language for official purposes.
Submitted by owenjarus on Fri, 07/23/2010 - 08:17 (Heritage Key)
Inside this tomb archaeologists found a gold medallion, with an Islamic inscription, that may have been used to ward off evil. Outside they found the remains of a stone platform that can be seen in this photo. Photo courtesy Professor David Johnson.
Archaeologists have made two major tomb discoveries at the ancient city of Petra in southern Jordan.
They discovered a rock-cut tomb that contained the skeletal remains of 61 individuals, along with a wealth of wooden artefacts, animal bones and ceramics.
The second discovery was made at a place called tomb 676. While excavating it archaeologists found a gold medallion with an Islamic inscription on it. The find dates to long after the tomb was abandoned.
“This object was placed in the tomb in a later period - perhaps as a way of warding off evil coming from the tomb,” said Professor David Johnson, of Brigham Young University in Utah, who led the team that made both tomb finds. He has been working in Petra for nearly three decades.
Each of the tombs date back about 2,000 years, to a time when the city was prosperous. At that time Petra was ruled by a people called the Nabataeans – an Arabic people who made the city the centre of their kingdom. Petra’s location made it a natural place to do business with people coming from Arabia and elsewhere in the Middle East.
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There are some good tomb photos in the article, but none of the medallion.
(Via Dorothy King on Facebook.)