The emergence of cultural heritage in Jordan

Although at the end of the nineteenth century the Ottoman sultan began a policy aimed at building a national archaeological heritage, the Arab provinces of the Empire were excluded from this process. It was only after the First World War that the governments of the new colonial states of the area started to elaborate a coherent policy aiming at creating institutions for the protection of cultural heritage. Excavations were started and the first archaeological museums were created by European archaeologists. Yet, the enterprise was mainly a colonizer's affair and the very process of creating a cultural heritage was a way of imposing the European domination on the indigenous population. In this article, I analyse some aspects of the history of archaeological practice in Jordan and its political implications during and after the colonial period. This allows me to show how the emergence of cultural heritage has transformed archaeology into a political instrument at the disposal of the postcolonial state. In particular, I focus on biblical archaeology and Christian religious tourism, and their political meanings.