The Art Newspaper

Jordan gets a “mega” archaeological database

Detailed catalogue of over 12,000 sites is now online, and Iraq is next

By Gaetano Palumbo. Web only
Published online: 06 July 2011

Mega-Jordan's homepage

AMMAN. Jordan is a country with an extremely rich archaeological heritage. Many sites, like Petra and Jerash (Gerasa), are internationally renowned, but there are dozens more that could attract visitors if they were well presented and run. And then there are thousands of others whose value to the scientific and research communities are poorly appreciated due to the lack of precise information. In the early 1990s Jordan was one of the first countries to adopt a computerised system for cataloguing its archaeological assets. That system, known as Jadis (Jordan Antiquities Database and Information System), was relatively simple, without a graphical user interface, but capable nonetheless of providing information on over 9,000 archaeological sites, gathering the data from hundreds of excavation reports archived at the Department of Antiquities in Amman.

However, the database was unable to provide information on the status of conservation at any given site. Furthermore, Jadis only identified a site by means of a dot, making it impossible for researchers to know the exact “footprint”, an essential factor when evaluating the potential impact of new constructions or activities incompatible with the monument’s conservation. Since 2007 the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) and the World Monuments Fund (WMF) have been working with Jordan’s Department of Antiquities to develop a new programme based on an open-source GIS (geographic information system) web system, which uses Google Earth as a cartographic base. The Middle East Geodatabase for Antiquities (Mega), now consultable online at www.megajordan.org, contains information on around 12,500 archaeological sites. Besides marking out the perimeters of every site on a relief map of the terrain, the database further allows users to pinpoint the presence of specific elements within the site such as buildings, epigraphic or decorative features, and in theory also the position of every find, as well as the cultural and chronological framework to which every element belongs.

The other important aspect of the project is the methodology used for data gathering on the ground, from mapping and GPS to the evaluation of the conditions of the sites and the risks to their integrity. The system, now fully functional, will allow the Department of Antiquities to better manage the cataloguing system and, thanks to up-to-date information, prevent potential damage to the country’s archaeological heritage. Looking ahead, the system will also make it possible to identify zones that have yet to be fully explored archaeologically, directing new research efforts there, and will become a precious tool of knowledge for all those who have an interest in the history and archaeology of the Middle East.

The GCI and the WMF are now involved in the development of Mega-Iraq, a program with an architecture and an interface similar to Mega-Jordan, that will soon allow the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in Baghdad to catalogue the country’s thousands of archaeological sites, historic centres and buildings.

The writer is Program Director, North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia at the World Monuments Fund