Project Background and Outline

Concurrent with the development of the New Museum, MRAMP is already in the process of repurposing the current Madaba Archaeological Museum into a repository and storage center for the artifact collection (some 14,000 pieces), as well as a research center where scholars will have access to the materials. In a period when cultural heritage is in danger throughout the region, this project seeks to protect, develop, and showcase thousands of years of antiquity in the irreplaceable historic, architectural, and cultural remains of Madaba and the surrounding region. The site itself and the collection as a whole constitute a vast storehouse of historical remains showcasing the area’s cultural and artistic heritage over a period of more than 10,000 years, including a wide array of museum quality sculptural and artifactual objects dating from the Neolithic Period (ca. 10,000 BC) through the end of the Ottoman Period (early 20th c). It reveals an uninterrupted historical, cultural, and residential line back to the very Ottoman-period buildings that the project is also restoring, indeed to the modern founding of Madaba. The years of 2020 and 2021 have seen vast improvements to the infrastructure and space usage of the current museum which will serve as the repository for artifacts from the Madaba region. As the photo stream indicates, rooms have been renovated and new equipment utilized to provide safe and secure storage facilities for the regional artifacts, new research spaces, and interim display areas.