Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Rare antiquities return
to Kingdom
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — A total of 700 pieces of antiquity
representing 10,000 years of civilisation in Jordan have been returned to the
country after being on display for the past year at the Faces of the Orient
Exhibition in Germany.
During a press conference yesterday, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Alia
Hattough-Bouran said all the objects are now safely back in Jordan and have been
distributed to the appropriate museums, universities and antiquities
departments.
The Faces of the Orient Exhibition opened on Oct. 7, 2004 in Berlin at the Altes
Museum (Old Museum). On April 8, 2005 the exhibition moved to the Art and
Exhibition Hall in Bonn, where it ran until Aug. 21.
The exhibition featured artefacts from all major epochs in the history of
Jordan, including those from the Early Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the Roman and
Nabataean periods, right through to the Byzantine and Early Islamic eras.
The 700 objects on display ranged from the world famous Ain Ghazal statues to
pottery fragments and came from museums in Amman, Irbid, Jerash, Umm Qais,
Madaba, Karak, Aqaba and Petra.
The exhibition also featured other antiquities from the Near East loaned by
museums in Germany and by the Louvre museum in Paris.
Jordanian and German officials yesterday praised the success of the exhibition,
which was the biggest archaeological exhibition on Jordan ever to take place in
Europe, attracting over 150,000 visitors.
Bouran said the exhibition was successful not only in promoting Jordan but also
as a means to enhance ties between the two countries.
“It was a place for cultural and historical exchange between the Kingdom and
this European country,” she said.
Stefan Bantle, charge d'affaires at the German embassy, echoed similar
sentiments.
“The exhibition was the most important event in German-Jordanian cultural
relations for the last 10 or 20 years and an expression of the trusting
relationship between Jordanian and German archaeological institutions,” he said.
“We are sure that many German tourists are now motivated to come to Jordan and
see the exhibits in their original settings,” Bantle added.
Thanks to the exhibition some objects of Jordanian antiquity were restored as a
result of funding from the German Federal Foreign Office.
These include a brazier from the Umayyad period (the so-called Al Fudain
brazier) which was completely restored.
The official handover of the Al Fudain brazier was scheduled to take place
yesterday at the Archaeological Museum at the Amman Citadel.
The end of the exhibition also sees the return of one of the world famous Ain
Ghazal statues, which has been on display in Washington, DC for the past 10
years, before joining the other statues at the exhibition in Germany.
The Ain Ghazal statues are the oldest known sculptures made of composite
materials.
The statues were found at the Neolithic site of Ain Ghazal, in central Jordan
during excavation in 1983. Ain Ghazal, thought to have been founded around
7,250BC and abandoned around 5,000BC, was a large village inhabited by farmers,
herders and hunters.
Beate Salje, a professor from the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin told The
Jordan Times that a book documenting some of the objects on display was
published to coincide with the exhibition. She added that a total of 8,000
copies had already been sold in Germany.
“Faces of the Orient was a unique opportunity for Jordan to present itself in
Europe as an attractive country and will encourage many Germans to visit it,”
said Salje.
The exhibition was organised by the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal
Republic of Germany in cooperation with the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Staatliche
Museen zu Berlin, the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism and the Department of
Antiquities.