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Monday, 26th July 2010 (508 views)

A gold medallion with an Islamic inscription was one of several recent finds made by archaeologists at tombs in Petra, Jordan, it has been revealed.

According to Heritage Key, a team of experts led by Professor David Johnson of Brigham Young University in Utah uncovered a rock-cut tomb containing the remains of 61 people, as well as various ceramic and wooden artefacts.

The group then found another tomb, called Tomb 676, where the gold medallion was discovered along with a female skeleton. Both tombs date back around 2,000 years to a time when Petra was a particularly prosperous city.

It is thought that the medal dates back to a period long after the abandonment of the tomb.

Professor Johnson said it is possible the medal was seen as a way of combating evil emanating from the site.

"It was placed above the grave - not in the grave itself," he commented, adding that Islam would not even have existed at the time that the tomb was built.

Petra is a UNESCO World Heritage site that was built by carving out of a sheer rock face and became a vital hub along the trade routes for silk and spices between the Asian nations of China, India and southern Arabia and the Middle Eastern and European countries of Egypt, Syria, Greece and Rome.

 

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