In the 1989 film ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, the Temple of the Sun is the beautiful Middle Eastern shrine that houses the Holy Grail.
Now, in a case of ‘history imitating art’, human remains and a ‘Holy Grail’ cup have been found beneath the real-life filming location of Al Khazneh.
Experts carried out excavations beneath Al Khazneh, also known as the Treasury – an elaborate rock-cut tomb carved into a sandstone cliff face in Petra, Jordan.
They found a “previously unknown” grave with twelve skeletal remains and grave goods, including a grail-shaped cup that looked remarkably similar to the one in the film starring Sean Connery and Harrison Ford.
Experts hope that analysis of the human remains can reveal more about the Nabataeans, the ancient Arab people who built Al Khazneh.
The ‘secret’ grave at the Indiana Jones film location in Petra was found to contain twelve well-preserved human skeletons
‘History imitates art’: among the artefacts was a ceramic chalice resembling the shape of the Holy Grail (photo)
Pictured is Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) holding the Holy Grail in the 1989 film ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’ starring Henry Jones Sr. (Sean Connery) and Sallah (John Rhys-Davies)
The excavations were led by Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman, executive director of the American Center of Research (ACOR), along with Josh Gates, host of The Discovery Channel.
Gates, who presents an episode of his show ‘Expedition Unknown’ from Petra, called it a ‘tremendously rare discovery’.
“In the two centuries that Petra has been explored by archaeologists, nothing like this has ever been found before,” Gates said. CNN.
“Even for one of the most famous buildings in the world … there are still enormous discoveries to be made.”
In 2003, expeditions discovered two graves beneath the left side of Al-Khazneh, which contained partial skeletal remains.
But Dr. Creasman and his colleagues had suspected that there were more secret graves waiting to be discovered.
Ground radar – a surveying technique that emits pulses of electromagnetic waves – had suggested that there were underground chambers on both the right and left of Al-Khazneh.
As a result, the Jordanian government allowed ACOR to dig beneath the treasury in an attempt to prove that these additional underground chambers were really there.
Excavations – carried out in August and filmed for Expedition Unknown – found graves filled with twelve complete skeletal remains and well-preserved artefacts of bronze, iron and ceramics.
Al-Khazneh, also known as The Treasury, has appeared in many Hollywood films, including Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Al-Khazneh, also known as The Treasury, appeared in the 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Pictured: Sean Connery and Harrison Ford
One of the Middle East’s greatest monuments is Al-Khazneh, also known as The Treasury, located in Petra, Jordan
Dr. Fares Braizat (from left), Fadi Balawi, Josh Gates and Dr. Pearce Paul Creasman looking at the newly discovered tomb at Petra
Due to Petra’s humidity and seasonal flooding, some skeletons have been found with mold on them.
Meanwhile, among the artifacts was a ceramic chalice that surprisingly resembled the shape of the Holy Grail – a notable Indiana Jones reference.
“It was really this great moment in history that imitated art,” Gates said.
Although human remains have been found in graves beneath Al-Khazneh before, experts say such discoveries are rare.
“The burials in this grave are articulated, so the bones have not been searched and moved, so that is extremely rare,” Dr Creasman said.
This is thought to be the largest collection of people in one place in Petra and there are more to discover beneath the monument.
Given their prime location beneath the legendary rock-hewn building, Dr. Creasman that these were ‘hugely important people’ in their time.
Although human remains have been found in graves in Al-Khazneh before, experts say such discoveries are rare.
In the 1989 film ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, the Temple of the Sun is the beautiful Middle Eastern shrine that houses the Holy Grail. Exterior scenes were shot at Al Khazneh, but the temple’s interior scenes were filmed at Elstree Studios in England (pictured)
They would have been Nabataeans, the ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant.
At its height around the birth of Christ, the Nabataean Empire stretched across the Middle East and included Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Things changed dramatically for the Nabataeans and Petra around AD 106 when the Romans peacefully took control of Petra (the kingdom’s capital) and the entire Nabataean people.
Once a thriving trading center, Petra is located in what is now the southwestern corner of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Today, the unmistakable carved building of Al Khazneh attracts almost a million tourists a year.
Although the exterior statues have been heavily eroded by wind and rain, visitors can still see mythological figures associated with the afterlife, including four eagles to carry away the souls of the dead.
The team emphasizes that no skeletal remains have been found in the building itself, which was probably built in the first century AD as a mausoleum and crypt.
Experts will now analyze the remains in the hope of learning more about their lives, including occupations, dietary habits and age at death.