Satellite imaging finds hidden monument in Jordan’s Petra

AMMAN, Jordan — Satellite and drone images have led to a new discovery in the ancient city of Petra — a massive man-made stone platform hidden under sand.

The platform might have been used for ceremonial purposes because it was fronted on one side by columns and a monumental staircase, said Christopher A. Tuttle, executive director of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. Only excavations would be able to shed more light on its original use, but no digs are planned for now, he said.

Petra is a sprawling archaeological site of tombs and monuments carved into rose-hued desert sandstone some 2,000 years ago by traders known as Nabataeans. Petra’s most famous building is the Treasury, where scenes from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” were filmed in the 1980s.

Scientific exploration of Petra goes back some 200 years, and Tuttle worked at the site for close to a decade.

The platform is located about 3,000 feet from the ancient city center, but away from paths used by tourists and away from major monuments, Tuttle said late Friday. It is not clearly visible from the ground or nearby hills, and its outlines only emerged in satellite and drone images, he said.

“It’s this very large platform that many of us (archaeologists) have walked over for years, and probably didn’t even realize we were walking on it,” said the archaeologist, who collaborated with Sarah Parcak from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Tuttle led four ground surveys while Parcak analyzed satellite data.

The platform was constructed by leveling a natural plateau, according to the pair’s findings, published last month in the Bulletin of American Schools of Oriental Research.

COUNCIL OF AMERICAN OVERSEAS RESEARCH CENTERS/C.A. TUTTLE VIA AP