October 29, 2024
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Sunken temple of ancient Arabian civilization discovered off the coast of Italy
An ancient temple built by Arabian immigrants from the Nabataean culture has finally been discovered off the coast of Italy
A submerged ancient warehouse district along the Pozzuoli coast.
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient altar and carved marble slabs sunken along the Italian coast near Naples. The find is likely the remains of a 2,000-year-old temple built by immigrants from Nabataea, an ancient kingdom on the Arabian Peninsula, whose rock-carved “treasury” is reminiscent of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. appeared in
However, the elaborate temple was later buried in a mixture of concrete and broken pottery, possibly as foreign traders left the area, according to a study published in the journal on September 12. It is said that it will be done. ancient.
“For me, this was one of the most unexpected discoveries,” said study lead author Michele Stefanile, a marine archaeologist at the Scuola Superiore Meridionale, an educational institution in Naples, in an email. He told Live Science.
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The temple is located off the coast of Pozzuoli, a town on the volcanic Campi Flegrei, about 16 km (10 miles) east of Naples. In Roman times, the city was known as Puteoli and was a large port where ships from all over the Roman world docked to transport grain and other trade goods.
Centuries of volcanic activity have significantly altered Pozzuoli’s coastline, preserving submerged Roman warehouses and other buildings associated with the approximately 2 km (1.2 mi) ancient port area. Artifacts recovered from the sea dating back to the 18th century suggested there was a buried temple, but no one knew the exact location.
Related article: A 2,000-year-old tomb containing 12 human bones has been discovered in Petra, the filming location for “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.”
An example of an altar and carved marble slabs discovered off the coast of Pozzuoli, Italy.
In 2023, researchers mapping the area’s ocean floor discovered two submerged chambers with Roman-style walls. These walls were approximately 10 by 5 meters (32 feet by 16 feet) and formed two large rooms. There were two white marble altars leaning against the walls of one of the rooms. Both altars have several rectangular recesses, which probably once housed sacred stones. Each room also had a marble slab inscribed with the words “Dusari Sacral” in Latin, meaning “consecrated to Dussehra”, the chief deity of the ancient Nabataean religion.
“There appears to be a building dedicated to the Nabataean gods, but with Roman architecture and Latin inscriptions,” Stefanile said.
The Nabataean kingdom extended from northern Arabia to the eastern Mediterranean. From the 4th century BC to the 2nd century BC, the Nabataeans controlled an expanding trade network for luxury goods such as incense, gold, ivory, and perfume, amassing great wealth by the late 1st century AD Nabataean capital Petra A huge tomb often referred to as the “Treasury” was built around that time.
Archaeologists’ map of the excavations of the Nabataean temples.
“It makes perfect sense that the Nabataeans were at Puteoli as a merchant community,” said Stephen Tuck, a Roman historian at Miami University in Ohio, who was not involved in the study but reported electronically to Live Science. He spoke via email. Puteoli was Italy’s second-largest city and major port during Roman times, and “the Nabataeans were probably drawn there and brought their religious practices with them,” Tuck said.
Laurent Solbecq, an archaeologist at the Vrije Universiteit Bruxelles, told Live Science in an email that “it would not be surprising to find a temple to their chief deity Dussehra/Dusares” at Puteoli. Under Trajan, the Roman emperor who ruled from 98 to 117 AD, Trubek said, “The Nabataean people benefited from Roman expansion in the Near East until the creation of the province of Arabia under Trajan. “It is widely understood that this was the case,” he said, and was not involved in the study.
After Nabataea was annexed by the Roman Empire in 106 AD, Arabia’s cultural control over the inland caravan trade collapsed. The destruction of Puteoli temple may reflect those turbulent times.
Stefaniel and his team discovered that the temple was intentionally filled with a mixture of concrete and broken pottery in the 2nd century AD.
“Probably after Trajan’s conquest of Arabia in 106 AD, the Nabataeans no longer had the possibility to trade freely at Puteoli and probably abandoned the port,” Stefanile said.
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