Gesichter des Orients: 10,000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur aus Jordanien.

• Author: Porter, Benjamin W.

Gesichter des Orients: 10,000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur aus Jordanien. Edited by BEATE SALJE; NADINE RIEDL; and GUNTHER SCHAURTE Mainz: VERLAG PHILIPP NON ZABERN, 2004. Pp. xvi + 280, illus. [euro]44.90.

German scholars have made a steady and impressive contribution to the investigation of the history and archaeology of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, beginning with the early nineteenth-century European exploration of the country's antiquities and continuing up to the recent investigation of important archaeological sites such as Gadara, Petra, and Balu'a. Current knowledge of Jordan's culture history was displayed for the German public in a recent traveling exhibition, Gesichter des Orients: 10,000 Jahre Kunst und Kultur aus Jordanien. The exhibition appeared at the Altes Museum, Museumsinsel in Berlin, and later at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn between 2004 and 2005. Thanks to the cooperation between Jordan's Department of Antiquities and several German academic institutions, as well as the kingdom's museums, universities, and foreign research centers, this exhibit was the largest display of Jordanian antiquities even seen outside the kingdom, illuminating the country's culture history from the first Neolithic farming communities to the Islamic conquest and the founding of the Umayyad Dynasty.

Born from this recent exhibition was a handsome catalogue that imparts Jordan's history and environment in twelve well-illustrated chapters. After a chapter deseribing Jordan's environmental diversity, the book dedicates a chapter to each historical epoch (e.g., the Bronze Age, the Nabataeans, the Byzantine Period) and concludes with a brief history of the kingdom's exploration and recent efforts to preserve its antiquities. Each chapter is broken into two or three parts. The first sections are usually overviews of the time period, with later sections focusing on characteristic archaeological sites or research themes. The chapters are authored by either European or Jordanian specialists and written for an educated German-reading audience. Two- or three-page English summaries are provided at the end of each chapter and photo captions are rendered in both languages. Archaeologists who work in Jordan as well as interested laypersons with a reading knowledge of German who are seeking an attractive coffee-table book will want to purchase this book. While it does not have the sweep of the recent catalogue for the...