Posted on 10/28/2024 5:37:48 PM PDT by nickcarraway
British archaeologists recently made a discovery that sounds like something straight out of an Indiana Jones movie: a secret tomb under the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, according to a press release from the University of St. Andrews.
The archaeologists, led by Richard Bates, a professor at St. Andrews, and Pearce Paul Creasman, the executive director of American Center of Research, were exploring Petra’s iconic Treasury building, which was featured in 1989 blockbuster Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. (In the film, the building is home to the Holy Grail, though its actual purpose has remained mostly a mystery.)
For decades, archaeologists have known that there were tombs around the structure, but had been unable to fully explore them. Then, this year Bates, Creasman, and the team were approved by the Jordanian government to use ground-penetrating radar on the site. When the survey found the strong possibility of subterranean chambers in the Treasury, they were given permission to excavate. The team found a buried tomb, believed to have been undisturbed for two millennia, containing the remains of 12 skeletons and a collection of grave offerings.
“The discovery is of international significance as very few complete burials from the early Nabataeans have ever been recovered from Petra before,” professor Richard Bates from the University of St. Andrews School of Earth and Environmental Science said in a press statement. “The burials, their goods, and the human remains can all be expected to help fill the gaps of our knowledge in how Petra came to be and who the Nabataeans were,” he added.
One of the skeletons was even holding a chalice that resembled the cinematic Holy Grail. Josh Gates, the host of Discovery Channel’s “Expedition Unknown,” which filmed a soon-to-air TV program on the tomb excavation, said in a press statement, “It was the ultimate moment of life imitating art.”
“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,” he said.
Detailed analysis of the ceramic vessel revealed that it is the top part of a smashed jug that is thought to date back to the first century BC.
“The tomb was most likely built as a mausoleum and crypt in the Nabatean Kingdom at the beginning of the 1st century AD for Aretas IV Philopatris,” Bates said. “Like many tombs in the valley, few remains have ever been found in the tombs due to their subsequent use and reuse over the last two millennia.”
Maybe this was the persons favorite drinking cup
He chose...poorly.
He chose poorly. Otherwise they could’ve just asked him.
Are they sure that it isn’t the beacon from the Castle Anthrax? Looks like a grail.
This was a recent episode of Expedition Unknown. About two weeks ago.
Nonsense. The real Holy Grail was studded with diamond-shaped pears and clover eggs the size of emeralds.
The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
Publicity stunt for the 35th anniversary of the movie.
What next? The Ark of the Covenant in a US Government warehouse?
I’ve visited Petra in 1996. The movie connection was in my mind. The vast interior where the grail was was a movie set. The actual entrance only goes a few feet in and then just a solid wall of rock. Kind of a letdown when you have the movie dancing in your imagination. That said the carvings in solid rock are awesome. Petra is considered by many to be the top place to visit in the middle east. Even above the Pyramids.
Well it’s gotta be somewhere!..…...…....
I have been there while on deployment. It was truly amazing.
Post #3! Thank you for upholding FR’s standards for wit!
Funny detail (life imitates Ark):
Raiders was released on Friday, June 12, 1981. The Torah/Chumash reading was the same as on PDJT's birthday, the one that opens with the 85-letter sectioned marked out by the inverted nuns [נו"ן הפוכה]:
Numbers 10
׆
35. And it came to pass, when the ark set forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let your enemies be scattered; and let them who hate you flee before you:
36. And when it rested, he said, Return, O Lord, to the many thousands of Israel:
׆
It's liked I'd offered for this year's ([7]85 תשפ"ה) year blessing,
May it be a year of an inverted opening.
תהא שנת פתיחה הפוכה
🍿
Wait, I thought the pellet with the poison’s in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true...
There were two shows, Part 1 & 2, I watched them. I’m happy for Josh Gates, I watch him often, but I don’t believe I could be as excited as he gets opening graves.
I imagine Expedition Unknown covered some of the expenses involved.
No! There’s been a change. They broke the chalice from the palace. They replaced it with a flagon with a dragon. The pellet with the poison is in the flagon with a dragon. The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
Footed drinking cups weren’t a thing until the Middle Ages.
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