ABSTRACT
The Jordan Museum is a national institution that aims at the preservation and presentation of Jordan's cultural heritage. It is Jordan’s new national museum of archaeology and history, opened in 2013 and located at the heart of Jordan's capital, where East Amman meets its Western half. The museum is thus a major addition to Amman’s downtown cultural hub, which includes the municipality and King Hussein Cultural Center. The general concept of the exhibition plan in the museum is “A Storytelling of Jordan: Land and People,” from the Paleolithic to modern times. The museum galleries cover 1.5 million years of Jordanian history and archaeology. Thanks to the Department of Antiquities, the Jordan Museum has on loan thousands of objects from all periods and regions of Jordan. These include ‘Ayn Ghazal statues, the Tulaylat al-Ghassul wall painting, the Pella ivory box, Khirbat adh-Dharih Nabataean statues, the bronze brazier of al-Fudayn, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. The galleries in the Jordan Museum are constructed to create an awareness of Jordan’s culture and heritage, the promotion of national values, and the educational mission of the museum staff. The result is an elegant and creative mix of engendering nationhood, appreciation of ancient art, and learning Middle Eastern history.
