Accompanied by the Director of the Archeology Department, Dr. Yazid Alyan, the Director of the German Institute of Antiquities in Amman, Dr. Katrina Schmidt, and a crowd of Yarmouk staff and students, the President of Yarmouk University, Prof. Zeidan Kafafi, opened the exhibition “Tal-Zarah: A Mirror from the History of Ancient Jordan”. The opening was organized by the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University in cooperation with the Department of Archeology and the German Institute Antiquities. The exhibition included a collection of artifacts discovered at the site of "Tal-Zarah" in Wadi Al-Arab region.
After opening the exhibition, Kafafi said that Yarmouk University has always been keen to building bridges of cooperation with local and international institutions of heritage and antiquities, as such a strategy helps in preserving the Jordanian heritage. He explained that the scientific projects and academic studies are usually carried out at Yarmouk’s Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology in order to create a generation of Jordanian researchers and professors who are able to explore and preserve Jordan’s heritage of ancient civilizations. He added that this exhibition is one of the important exhibitions organized by Yarmouk University, as it displays a number of important artifacts that have been discovered in Tal-Zarah region, which tell us stories about the daily life of the inhabitants, their ancient religious beliefs, and their handicrafts.
In return, Alyan praised the efforts of Yarmouk University represented by the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology in revealing and preserving the civilizational history of Jordan.He stressed the keenness of the Department of Archeology to document joint cooperation with the university in fieldwork and scientific publications. Alyan also pointed out that future cooperation will include reviewing and reassessing the existing artifacts at Yarmouk University by the Department of Antiquities, something that should help in displaying new magnificent pieces at the Jordanian Heritage Museum at the university.
For her part, Schmidt, the Director of the German Institute of Archeology in Amman, gave a detailed presentation about the artifacts on display and the importance of Tal-Zarah site in understanding the history of civilizations in Jordan. She also shed light on the Institute's keenness to strengthen cooperation links with Yarmouk University, which embraces distinctive scientific competencies in the fields of preserved antiquities and preserving Jordan's ancient civilization.
Dr. Hani Hayajneh, explained that this exhibition is one of Yarmouk’s activities that aim at consolidating the existing cooperation between the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk and other institutions across the globe in the field of heritage and antiquities. He also said that the university is working on preparing a systematic plan for cooperation with the Department of Archeology in the fields of archaeological excavation and joint research, which will contribute to revealing the historical image of Jordan in its cultural context. In addition, he stated that the exhibition will be available to visitors, including school students, until June 2020.
