ACOR SCHEP Lecture: Towards a New Regional Archaeological Museum
Sunday 21/05/2017 at 6 PM – 8 PM

For more information about the event please visit the facebook page of ACOR
https://web.facebook.com/ACORJORDAN/

The Madaba Regional Archaeological Museum Project, led by an international consortium from the US, Italy, and Jordan, seeks to preserve the rich heritage of Madaba and the surrounding region while simultaneously fostering a greater sense of ownership and engagement by the local community. The team has long worked in the Madaba area and looks forward to giving back not only through the new museum, but also by boosting the local economy through increased tourist flows and direct, meaningful employment on the project and subsequent museum.

A subgrantee of USAID’s Sustainable Cultural Heritage Through Engagement of Local Community’s Project (SCHEP), which is implemented by ACOR, MRAMP will employ SCHEP’s signature community-based approach. The goal is to create a local team working on the project that gains real skills and can find meaningful employment not only during the construction of the project, but for the lifetime of the museum – this means in-depth, practical training on a variety of fields related to museum management, conservation, and related skills.

The MRAMP team envisions the museum not only as a first-rate collection of artifacts from greater Madaba, but as a place for communities to come together to celebrate a shared passion for cultural heritage, education, and history. Come learn about the innovative museum design, training programs, and about MRAMP’s goals at this lecture with the project’s senior staff.

About the lecturers:

Douglas Clark serves as Director of the Center for Near Eastern Archaeology at La Sierra University in Riverside, California. He also directs the Madaba Plains Project excavations at Tall al-`Umayri, Jordan, where he has worked since the project’s inception in 1984, following two seasons at Tall Hisban in 1973 and 1976. He has authored, edited, or co-edited, ten volumes and over 160 articles and has made more than 180 presentations worldwide.

Suzanne Richard has been the Principal Investigator at the important Early Bronze Age site of Khirbat Iskandar, Jordan since the project’s inception in 1981. She is an internationally known scholar in the period and has published two books, and two are forthcoming, as well as over 150 scholarly articles. She has presented even more papers at scholarly conferences both in the United States and internationally. She is Distinguished Professor of History and Archaeology at Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania, where she also directs the Collins Institute for Archaeological Research as well as the Archaeology Museum Gallery at Gannon.

Andrea Polcaro is a research fellow at Perugia University, Italy, where, since 2008, he has taught a course in Near Eastern Archaeology. Since 2012 he co-directs the Italian-Spanish archaeological expedition to the site of Jebel al-Mutawwaq, Jordan and since 2014, the joint Italian archaeological expedition to the Sumerian site of Tell Zurghul / Nigin in Southern Iraq. He is author of many scientific publications, including a monograph and several papers in international journals. He has also participated in numerous international archaeological conferences on Near Eastern archaeology.

Marta D’Andrea is a research fellow at Sapienza University of Rome. Since 2005, she has participated as an archaeologist and ceramicist in several Italian and international projects across Jordan. She is a co-director of the archaeological expedition at Khirbat Iskander. She has published a major research monograph and many scientific articles in international journals and given presentations at numerous congresses on the archaeology of the Near East, and at academies and universities in Italy and abroad.

Basem Mahamid is the Director of Madaba Antiquities. A graduate of the University of Jordan, he occupied many DOA positions: Assistant Director of Amman Department of Antiquities, Head of Illicit Trafficking Section, Director of Site Management Directorate, Site Manager of Amman Citadel, Site Manager of Umm ar-Rassas, Director of Tall Dhiban Excavations Project 2004, and Assistant Director of the Umayyad Madina Excavations and Restoration Project at the Amman Citadel. He has participated in many local and international conferences and has many publications in local and international journals. He is a member in the ICCM (The international Committee for the Conservation of Mosaics).