National Archaeological Museum of Jordan

Museum Artifacts on Display

The National Archaeological Museum of Jordan or sometimes simply the National Museum, is situated on Citadel Hill just northwest of the Temple of Hercules in Amman, Jordan. Constructed in 1951^[1], the Jordan Archaeological Museum, this small museum is packed with antiquities from all over the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan dating from prehistoric times to the 15th century AD displayed in chronological order; including^[2]:

1. The Paleolithic (1000,000 – 10,000 years ago).
   
2. The Pre-pottery Neolithic (8300-5500 BC).
   
3. The Pottery Neolithic (5500-4300 BC).
   
4. The Chalcolithic (4300-3300 BC).
   
5. The Early Bronze Age (3300-1900 BC).
   
6. The Middle Bronze Age (1900-1550 BC).
   
7. The Late Bronze Age (1550-1200 BC).
   
8. The Iron Age (1200-550 BC).
   
9. The Persian Period/Iron III (550-350 BC).
   
10. The Hellenistic Period (332-63 BC).
    
11. The Nabataean Period (312 BC-AD 106).
    
12. The Roman Period (63 BC – AD 324).
    
13. The Byzantine Period (AD 324 – 636).
    
14. The Islamic Era (AD 636 – the present):
    1. The Umayyad Period (AD 661 – 750);
    2. The Abbasid Period (AD 661 –750);
    3. The Ayyubid/Mamluk Period (AD 1173 –1516).

The museum also houses several jewelery inscription statuary and coin collections, presenting ancient items of daily life such as pottery, glass, flint and metal tools, as well as monumental materials such as inscriptions and statuaries. Prominently displayed are:

• Bronze-era hand tools;
• Greco-Roman statuary;
• medieval chain mail (Islamic);
• a copy of the Mesha Stele (see Madaba) and;
• four rare Iron Age sarcophagi.

Among the most important exhibits in the museum are the plaster statues from ‘Ain Ghazal, dating back to around 6000 BC, and the Dead Sea bronze scroll written in Aramaic characters.

Museum hours are 08:30-17:00 daily. On Fridays and official holidays the museum is open from 09:00-16:00^[3] .