AMMAN — German archaeological presence goes back to late 18th and early 19th century when first Orientalists from that part of Europe roamed around the Middle East.

 

The ancient Gadara, one of cities that belongs to Decapolis, represents a fine example of how Jordanian and German scholars work hand in hand on multiple projects.

 

This year, the systematic archaeological excavation by the German Protestant Institute (GPIA) in Gadara / Umm Qais marks its 50th anniversary. Therefore, the GPIA and the Department of Antiquities (DoA) launched a three-day colloquium, where German and Jordanian researchers discussed the current initiatives.

 

There is an anthology on the research of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in Umm Qais, which covers its work from 1987 to 2000, organisers said, adding that the colloquium aimed to take an inventory of the state of research for the years 2001 to 2025.

 

"Even at the most important Jordanian conference for archaeology, the International Conference on the History and Archaeology of Jordan [ICHAJ], which takes place every three years, individual projects from Gadara have been presented repeatedly, but without any overall discussion taking place in special sessions," said the Director of the GPIA Brita Jansen.

 

On the one hand, this leads to different systems being used in parallel, such as the naming of excavation areas and monuments or the typology of ceramics, Jansen continued, adding that individual topics, such as marble or mortar analyses or the investigation of water storage systems, are dealt with by different researchers without any exchange of information between them.

 

"The monographic works of the German institutes are published exclusively in German; only conference reports contain English-language papers on individual topics. Preliminary reports from other institutes are also not consistently written in English, but also in Arabic or Japanese, meaning that the information is not generally accessible," Jansen elaborated.

 

Despite all the knowledge acquired to date about the history of the site, there are still significant gaps in our understanding, for example regarding the beginnings of urban development after Pompey's conquest in 64 BC, or the question of whether settlement of the site actually came to an abrupt end after the devastating earthquake of 749.

 

Excavations over the past 25 years have yielded important new insights into the monumental buildings and residential quarters of the Hellenistic-Roman city, but some of these have neither been published nor understood, Jansen underlined.

 

"Post-antique buildings have been investigated at various sites, but it has become apparent that, in order to make a reliable assessment, the chronological classification of early Islamic ceramics in the region needs to be discussed further," the director noted.

 

Overall, it can be said that after 50 years of systematic archaeological research, comprehensive findings have been made, but beyond that, crucial potential remains unexploited.

 

"This means that research is hardly doing justice to this important city, which was not only one of the most important cities of the Decapolis, but is also a major tourist attraction. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities is particularly interested in further developing and marketing Umm Qais," Jansen said.

 

Levant was interconnected with other parts of the Roman Republic, and later Roman Empire.