October 29, 2024
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Sunken Temple of Ancient Arab Civilization Discovered Off Italy
An ancient temple built by Arab immigrants of the Nabatean culture has finally been discovered on the coast of Italy
A former underwater warehouse district on the coast of Pozzuoli.
Archaeologists have discovered ancient altars and inscribed marble slabs on the Italian coast near Naples. The finds are probably the remains of a 2,000-year-old temple built by Nabataean immigrants. “Treasure” carved in rock Appeared in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.
However, the elaborate temple was later buried with a mixture of concrete and broken pottery, likely because foreign traders left the area, according to a study published in the journal Sept. 12. Antiquity.
“This was an unexpected discovery for me,” the first author of the study Michele StefanileA marine archaeologist at the Southern Graduate School (Scuola Superiore Meridionale), an educational institute in Naples, told Live Science in an email.
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The temple is located on the coast of Pozzuoli, in the volcanic village of Campi Flegrei, 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of Naples. In Roman times, it was known as the city Puteoli and it was a great port, where ships came from all over the roman the world docked to bring in trade goods like grain.
Volcanic activity over the centuries has significantly altered Pozzuoli’s coastline, submerging and preserving Roman warehouses and other buildings associated with the ancient port district. Artifacts recovered from the sea in the 18th century suggested a buried temple, but no one knew exactly where.
Examples of altars and inscribed marble slabs found on the coast of Pozzuoli, Italy.
In 2023, researchers mapping the bottom of the region discovered two underwater rooms with Roman-style walls. These walls, measuring 32 feet by 16 feet (10 by 5 meters), formed two large rooms. There were two white marble altars against the wall of a room. Both altars had several rectangular holes, which probably once contained sacred stones. Each room also had a marble slab with the Latin inscription “Dusari sacrum”, meaning “consecrated to Dushara”, the main deity of the ancient Nabatean religion.
“It seems that we have a building dedicated to the Nabatean gods, but with Roman architecture and a Latin inscription,” Stefanil said.
The Nabatean Kingdom came from northern Arabia to the eastern Mediterranean. In the fourth and second centuries BC, the Nabataeans controlled a growing trade network of luxury goods such as incense, the goldivory and perfumes, accumulating enormous wealth. By the end of the first century BC, the enormous tomb known as the Treasure of the Nabataean capital Petra was built at that time.
Map of the excavation of the Nabatean temple by archaeologists.
“It makes sense that the Nabataeans were in Puteo as a trading community.” Steven TuckRoman historian at Miami University in Ohio, who was not involved in the study, said in an email to Live Science. Puteoli was the second-largest city and main port in Roman Italy at the time, Tuck said, and “the Nabateans would have been drawn there and brought their religious practices.”
Laurent TholbecqArchaeologists at the Université libre de Bruxelles told Live Science in an email that “it is not surprising to find a temple to Dushara/Dusares, their main deity” at Puteoli. “It is widely understood that the Nabataeans benefited from Roman advances in the Middle East until the creation of the Arab province under Trajan,” said Tholbecq, a Roman emperor who ruled from 98 to 117, who was not involved in the study.
After the Nabataeans were incorporated into the Roman Empire in 106 AD, control over the caravan trade within Arabia collapsed. The destruction of the temple at Puteoli may reflect this turbulent period.
Stefanil and his team discovered the temple ca
“After Trajan’s conquest of Arabia in AD 106, the Nabateans no longer had the opportunity for free trade in Puteoli, and may have abandoned the port,” Stefanil said.
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