An ancient Nabataean temple with marble altars has been discovered in the Gulf of Pozzuoli, outside Naples, in Italy’s Campania region. A statement from the Italian Ministry of Culture reads: “The two marble altars from the Roman period, datable to the first half of the first century AD, are inserted inside the great temple of the Nabataeans, now submerged” . It is unclear when or if the ancient ruins will be removed from the seabed.
The Nabataean population was based in the desert areas of the Arabian Peninsula. About 2,000 years ago they established a colony at Pozzuoli, building the largest trading port in the Roman Mediterranean region, the ministry adds. The Nabataean city declined there at the end of the 5th century.
“It is an extraordinary result and the fruit of the collaboration between the peripheral bodies of the Ministry of Culture, the academic and scientific circles [organisations] in the area and the submarine arm of the Naples Carabinieri. Ancient puteoli [ancient Pozzuoli] reveals another of its treasures, the exact location of which was unknown until now, which testifies to the richness and immensity of commercial, cultural and religious exchanges in the Mediterranean basin in the ancient world”, declares the Italian Minister of Gennaro Sangiuliano culture in a statement.
The discovery sheds light on the layout of the port of Pozzuoli, adds the ministry, revealing how the “sacred buildings” of the Nabataean community were in very close contact with the long rows of warehouses intended to store the many goods in transit in the directed port. to Campania or redirected to Rome.
“These finds bring to five the total number of Nabataean altar slabs and altar bases found in this area of the sunken city since the first was discovered in the 18th century. The first three – two bases and one slab – are now part of the collections of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples and the Archaeological Park of the Campi Flegrei at the Castle of Baiae”, according to a comment on the history blog.
