The History of North American Archaeological Research in Jordan

It is only fitting that the volume in celebration of the Tenth International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan, ‘Crossing Jordan’, to be held in Washington, DC, May 23–28, 2007, be initiated with a review of the history of North American participation in Jordan. This summary is a brief attempt to do this. A history of the American Center of Oriental Research’s (ACOR) first twenty-five years was compiled by Branwen Denton and Paricia Bikai in 1993, and this was updated in 2001 in the ACOR section of An ASOR Mosaic. This article will summarize the material brought together in these studies and bring the work of the North Americans up to date.