Ceremonial opening after restoration

On the 5th of June 2024 there will be a ceremonial opening of the Madafeh (guest room) of the Bait Hussein Al Rousan with an exhibition in the upper village Alhara Alfoqa (Umm Qays, Jordan).

The ceremony was held under the patronage of the Director General of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, H.E. Prof. Dr. Fadi Balaa’awi. The restoration of the Madafeh (guest room) was carried out as part of a multi-week training programme in building conservation and stonemasonry offered by the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities in Gadara/ Umm Qays.

Since 2016, the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) has been running training programmes in stonemasonry and building conservation in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities in Gadara / Umm Qays. The Train the Trainers initiative aims to preserve the local tangible and intangible cultural heritage and at the same time to train craftsmen in practical building conservation and preservation.
In cooperation and exchange with Jordanian, Syrian and German craftsmen, traditional craft techniques are taught, tested in practice and revived. Lost knowledge of traditional production methods is also being regained through joint development and testing – for example, the concrete implementation of historic roof structures or the production of traditional clay plasters.

Since 2018, the practical training courses have been closely linked to the restoration of Bait Hussein Al Rousan, a partially demolished late 19th century courtyard complex in the historic centre of the upper village of Alhara Alfoqa in Umm Qays. Since then, the courtyard has been a central space for mediation, exchange and encounter in the form of a “work yard”. The first parts of the workshop have now been completed and a varied programme has been put together. In addition to training courses on craft techniques, a summer school on documenting ancient pottery shards was held for the first time in 2023. In the long term, the aim is to establish a permanent meeting place for education and dialogue on building conservation, heritage conservation and heritage education, open to all interested parties.

A documentary film produced in 2023/24 provides additional insights into the Train the Trainers programme and the German-Jordanian cooperation and can be viewed on the DAI YouTube channel (Arabic & German).

Further outreach material: https://www.dainst.org/en/departments/orient-department/about-us/branches-and-research-units/damascus-branch/outreach
Documentary film (Arabic version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivmXfr5nX5Q 
Documentary film (German version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsdF5fcTVRU 
Train the Trainers: https://www.dainst.org/forschung/projekte/noslug/5590 

Project management: Claudia Bührig, German Archaeological Institute (DAI)
Co-operation: Department of Antiquities of Jordan
Funding: Federal Foreign Office
The initiative is funded by the Ta’ziz Partnership of the Federal Foreign Office and part of the projects of the Archaeological Heritage Network

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