A recent study published on September 12 in the journal Antiquity reveals the discovery of a 2,000-year-old temple, likely constructed by immigrants from Nabatea, an ancient kingdom on the Arabian Peninsula renowned for its rock-cut architecture, including the famed Al-Khazneh featured in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
This complex temple, according to the research, was subsequently buried under a mixture of concrete and broken pottery, possibly due to the withdrawal of foreign traders from the area. "For me, this was one of the most unexpected discoveries," stated Michele Stefanile, the study's lead author and a maritime archaeologist at the South Postgraduate School in Naples.
The temple is located on the coast of Pozzuoli, known in Roman times as Puteoli, a major trade hub where vessels from across the Roman world docked to deliver goods, including grain. Over the centuries, volcanic activity has significantly altered the coastline at Pozzuoli, submerging and preserving approximately 2 kilometers of Roman warehouses and other structures related to the ancient port area.
Artifacts recovered from the sea since the 18th century suggested the existence of a buried temple, but its precise location remained unknown until 2023 when researchers mapped the seabed and discovered two submerged areas with Roman-style walls measuring approximately 10 meters in length and 5 meters in width, forming two large rooms.
Within one of the rooms, two marble altars were found leaning against the wall, featuring several rectangular recesses that likely once housed sacred stones. Additionally, each room contained marble slabs inscribed with the Latin phrase "Dusari sacrum," meaning "dedicated to Dushara," the chief deity of the ancient Nabatean religion. "It appears that we have a structure dedicated to Nabatean gods, but with Roman architecture and Latin inscriptions," noted Stefanile.
The Nabatean kingdom extended from northern Arabia to the eastern Mediterranean. Between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, the Nabateans controlled a growing trade network for luxury goods such as incense, gold, ivory, and perfumes, amassing considerable wealth by the end of the 1st century CE. The monumental tomb known as Al-Khazneh in the Nabateans' capital, Petra, was constructed during this period.
“It makes complete sense that the Nabateans would be in Puteoli as a trading community,” remarked Steven Tuck, a Roman historian at the University of Miami, who was not involved in the study. Puteoli was the second-largest city and the main port of Roman Italy at the time, and “the Nabateans would certainly have been drawn there and brought their religious practices with them,” he added.
Loren Tolkek, an archaeologist at the Free University of Brussels, emphasized that “it is not surprising to find a temple dedicated to Dushara/Dusares, their main deity,” in Puteoli. “It is well known that the Nabateans benefited from Roman advancements in the Near East until the establishment of the Arabian province under Trajan,” the Roman emperor who ruled from 98 to 117 CE, Tolkek stated.
After Nabatea was annexed into the Roman Empire in 106 CE, the control of that culture over internal caravan trade in Arabia diminished. The destruction of the temple in Puteoli may reflect that turbulent period.
Stefanile and his team discovered that the temple was intentionally buried in the 2nd century CE with a mixture of concrete and broken pottery. “Probably after Trajan's conquest of Arabia in 106 CE, the Nabateans no longer had the opportunity for free trade in Puteoli, and it is possible they abandoned the port,” concluded Stefanile.