2,000-year-old sunken temple of the “Indiana Jones civilization” found off the coast of Italy

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 2,000-year-old temple sunk off the coast of Italy near Naples, probably built by immigrants from Nabataea, an ancient Arab kingdom.

Nabataea is famous for the iconic rock-cut structures of Petra, including the treasury, famous from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”.

The Nabataean kingdom once controlled a trade network stretching from northern Arabia to the Mediterranean, trading in incense, gold, ivory, and perfumes.

Their wealth reached its peak in the 1st century AD, as exemplified by the Treasury of Petra.

The temple, believed to have been used by Nabatean traders, was later buried under concrete and pottery, likely as traders abandoned the area, according to a study published Sept. 12 in the journal Antiquity.

Student Michele Stefanile from the Scuola Superiore Meridionale in Italy began underwater research for the first time in 2021 to search the area.

“When I was a student, I was impressed by the presence of Nabatean materials found somewhere in the sea at Puteoli since the 18th century, and I was also amazed that no one had actually organized a hunt for this impressive historical testimony,” Michele said. Stefanile, a marine archaeologist at the Southern Graduate School in Naples, for Fox News Digital.

The temple lies near Pozzuoli, about 16 miles east of Naples.

In Roman times, Pozzuoli was known as Puteoli and served as a trading port.

In 2023, researchers mapping the seafloor discovered two submerged rooms with Roman-style walls. The rooms, approximately 32 by 16 feet in size, contained two white marble altars, each with rectangular alcoves that probably held sacred stones.

“It looks like we have a building dedicated to the Nabataean gods, but with Roman architecture and Latin inscriptions,” Stefanile told Live Science.

The marble slabs in the rooms bore the Latin inscription “Dusari sacrum”, which means “dedicated to Dushara”, the deity of the Nabataean people.

Volcanic activity over the centuries has sunk approximately 2 km of Roman-era buildings near Pozzuoli, including warehouses and other structures of the ancient port.

Artifacts found since the 18th century suggested that a temple may have been buried there, but its exact location has not yet been known.

“Perhaps after Trajan’s conquest of Arabia in 106 AD, the Nabataeans no longer had the opportunity to trade freely in Puteoli and probably abandoned the port,” Stefanile told Live Science.

After Nabataea was incorporated into the Roman Empire in AD 106, the inland trade routes controlled by the Nabataeans collapsed.

The temple at Puteoli may have been buried in response to these changes.

“The entire region is characterized by intense volcanic activity, which has caused the entire ancient coastal belt to be submerged to a depth of 0-6 meters,” says Scuola Superirore Meridionale.