Jordan Times
Monday, June 15, 1998
Prince Hassan opens Copenhagen conference on history of Jordan
From Francesca Ciriaci in Copenhagen
THEIR ROYAL Highnesses Crown Prince Hassan and Princess Sarvath arrived here
Sunday on a 24-hour visit aimed at strengthening bilateral ties and boosting
Euro-Jordanian cooperation.
Late yesterday, the Crown Prince opened a six-day international conference on the history
and archaeology of Jordan, which is being held under the co-patronage of Her Majesty Queen
Margrethe of Denmark.
Today, the Crown Prince was scheduled to meet Danish Minister for Development Cooperation
Paul Nielson and other officials at the Danish foreign ministry, and later hold talks with
Parliament Speaker Ivar Hansen.
Officials in the Jordanian delegation here, which includes Minister of Tourism and
Antiquities Aqel Beltaji, said the Crown Prince's meeting with Mr. Hansen will secure
Denmark's ratification of the 1997 Euro-Jordanian Association Agreement.
After a similar meeting in Vienna last week with the President of the Austrian National
Council, Prince Hassan welcomed Austria's imminent ratification of the agreement, which is
expected to be ratified by all 15 EU member states within the next six to twelve months.
Opening the 7th International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan convened
under the theme “Jordan by the Millennia,” Prince Hassan stressed that research
in history and archaeology should be aimed at promoting understanding among nations and
states.
He urged the audience of over 150 archaeologists and anthropologists from 16 countries to
make use of the conference to recognise the achievements of the past and their relevance
to the present.
Commenting on some of the papers to be presented during the conference, the Crown Prince
emphasised the interdependence, throughout the millennia, between natural and human
factors, such as demography and space.
Stressing the need for promoting “anthropolitics” — politics based on the
human being and addressing his/her needs — the Crown Prince reiterated the rules of
conduct of religious dimensions and interfaith dialogue.
He listed them as: “to begin with commonality to take into account the enlightenment
tradition; to be courageous in looking afresh at firstly our own and, secondly, each
other's heritage and history; and to develop a framework for disagreement.”
Prince Hassan also emphasised the importance of educational reforms in order to promote
“dialogue among civilisations, and not clashes of civilisations.”
He urged Jordanian and international participants in the conference to “move from
data through information to knowledge.”
The Crown Prince said one of the lessons to be learned from the past was that “man
against man and man against nature” has been the factor behind the decline and
disappearance of many civilisations throughout history.
Stressing the crucial importance of systematic archaeological excavations and their impact
on the Jordanian identity, the Crown Prince said Jordan's task is to reach a Terra
Media” — the middle ground, centrist politics that is essential to achieve
stability at both regional and international levels.
The conference, which was organised by the Department of Antiquities and the University of
Copenhagen, includes three workshops on “Conservation and Heritage Sites
Management,” and “Pottery: Edomite, Moabite and Ammonite.”
Director of the Department of Antiquities Ghazi Bisheh said the series of triennial
international conferences on the history and archaeology of Jordan, initiated by Prince
Hassan, has become a vehicle for fostering cultural exchanges and ideas and a venue for
sharing knowledge and insights with as wide an audience as possible.
Today the Crown Prince was scheduled to attend the second session of the conference, which
will close on June 19, with a presentation by U.S. scholar Oystein da Bianca on: “A
Handy people: Local Responses to Environmental Sociopolitical and Economic Uncertainties
in Jordan through the Millennia.”
Dr. Bisheh said the conference aims to “summarise in a synthetic and comprehensive
manner the results of the last two decades of archaeological works in Jordan. “Each
session of the conference is dedicated to a specific historic period, from the
pre-historic to the late Islamic eras. “A large volume of data has been accumulated
over the last two decades; Now it is time to analyse and interpret it,” Dr. Bisheh
said. Recalling that the First International Conference on the History and Archaeology of
Jordan was held in Oxford in 1980, Dr. Bisheh stressed the role the Kingdom has played in
advancing archaeological knowledge of the Near East. He said the six international
conferences held so far have been very successful in enhancing cultural and scientific
dialogue among scholars of different countries and have been conducive to promoting the
Kingdom's archaeological resources. Danish Archaeologist John Strange, head of the
conference's organising committee, in his opening remarks expressed hope that the congress
will strengthen ties between Jordan and Denmark and “the community of students and
lovers of Jordan's heritage and rich history. “Dr. Kjeld Mollgaard, Rector Magnificus
of the University of Copenhagen, welcomed HRH Crown Prince Hassan and Princess Sarvath and
HM Queen Margrethe at the ceremonial hall where the conference started. Before departing
for Amman later today, the Crown Prince was scheduled to deliver a keynote speech to the
Danish Foreign Policy Society on “Jordanian Perspectives on Peace and Security in the
Middle East.
Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has long rejected the current
Israeli government's notion that peace will only be achieved after Tel Aviv's
“security needs” are met, and has urged instead Israeli Premier Benyamin
Netanyahu to respect the international principle of “land for peace,” as upheld
by U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.