Petra's famous Treasury reveals a large tomb

In my post of February 2014, I wrote that archaeologists had discovered a level below the known ground floor of Petra’s Treasury (see: Hellenistic Petra, an indirect heritage of Alexander). It was thought that this meant that the entrance was at least four meters lower than accepted till then. Nothing more was published on the subject till October 2024 – a good ten years later! 

An article published on the site Arkeofil announced that archaeological scans revealed the presence of an underground tomb containing the remains of 12 skeletons buried in separate sarcophagi. It was established that the tomb dates from between the 1^st century BC and the 2^nd century AD. 

The most likely theory is that it was built around 40 AD as a Mausoleum for the Nabataean King Aretas IV Philopatris. It remains hard to prove since the Nabataeans made little difference between classes, meaning the royals could be buried in the same way as the average population. However, the location beneath the Treasury may indicate that the grave belonged to people of high status like a king. 

The skeletons, and the grave goods such as ceramics, bronze, iron, and pottery will allow for narrowing down the dating of the tomb. A DNA test of the skeletons will determine whether they belonged to the same family.