2000-YEAR-OLD LOST TEMPLE DISCOVERED OFF THE COAST OF ITALY

Fri 17 January 2025:

In a stunning discovery, archaeologists stumbled upon the ruins of a 2,000-year-old temple which is said to have been created by an ancient civilisation. The temple was also featured in the 1989 Hollywood film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The remains were found submerged near the Italian coast and were found to have inscribed marble slabs and ancient altars which were likely present there undisturbed for millennia.

According to researchers, the temple was near the coast of Puteoli, modern-day Pozzuoli and Jordan’s ancient nomadic civilisation Nabataeans had built it.

In those ancient times, the city of Puteoli used to be a large harbour where merchants from across the world would come to trade goods.

“The existence of a Nabataean sanctuary within the port area confirms that there was a community from that region participating in the commercial activities of Puteoli,” said the researchers in the report.

“The temple was a place of worship, a refuge for foreigners, and especially a place of exchange, business, and trade under the guarantee, control, and authority of the god Dusares,” they added.

All about the Roman-style temple that sits underwater

The temple was built on a rectangular plan and had two rooms through which was given access to the vicus Lartidianus which is an area where foreigners engaged in trade.

“The edification of the sanctuary was possible when the Nabataeans enjoyed the freedom and opportunities offered by the friendship with Rome and the independence of their motherland,” explained the researchers.

Every room had Roman-style walls and marble slabs on which were etched the Latin inscription “Dusari sacrum,” which meant “consecrated to Dushara,” who was the main deity in the ancient Nabataean religion.

The underwater structure was submerged 150 feet off the coast of Pozzuoli.

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“At the time of Trajan [Roman emperor from 98 to 117 AD], this situation suddenly changed and the creation of the province of Arabia Petraea had severe consequences: while Rome imposed its authority and its laws, also the trade routes were absorbed into a general network controlled by the State, with very little space for the initiatives of a people no longer independent,” stated the report.

“The downsizing of Nabataeans’ trade and the end of their small monopoly are perhaps the simplest explanations for the end of the sanctuary,” it added.

The ancient temple was covered in layers of magma because of centuries of volcanic activity until it was rediscovered by archaeologists who were searching for long-lost treasures in the Gulf of Pozzuoli.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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