The team found a long-buried tomb with the remains of 12 ancient skeletons beneath the iconic building where more than a million visitors a year come to visit.

The Treasury sits as the center of an entire city carved by hand into the walls of a desert canyon by the people of the Nabatean Kingdom, 2,000 years ago.

The team received permission to conduct a remote sensing scan and then dig beneath the Treasury. The non-invasive remote sensing was conducted with electromagnetic conductivity and ground penetrating radar.

When the survey found probable underground chambers in and around the Treasury, an excavation plan was designed and carried out by a team from the Department of Antiquities and ACOR. This revealed the presence of a tomb, with burials still in their ancient locations.

Professor Bates said, “The discovery is of international significance, as very few complete burials from the early Nabataeans have ever been recovered from Petra before. The burials, their goods, and the human remains can all be expected to help fill the gaps in our knowledge of how Petra came to be and who the Nabataeans were.”

“It’s fantastic that we now have the pottery, ecofacts and sediments to date when the Treasury was constructed. Previously we’ve worked on assumptions and conjectures—to have a definitive date will be a monumental achievement for us all.”

One skeleton in the chamber was found clutching a ceramic vessel.