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SPONSORED BY:
La Sierra
University
In consortium with:
Canadian
University College Walla
Walla University
Part of THE MADABA PLAINS PROJECT
A multi-disciplinary archaeological affiliation centered
in Jordan
and sponsored by:
Andrews University Canadian
University College
La Sierra
University Walla
Walla University
http://mpp.wallawalla.edu
Acknowledgments
As directors of the Madaba Plains Project-`Umayri
(MPP-U), we want to express our appreciation to several individuals
and groups for their support of our project. The Royal family
of Jordan, especially HRH Prince Hassan, his daughter HRH
Princess Sumaya and HRH Prince Raad, has long encouraged
us in our work as well as providing numerous constructive
suggestions for making the site archaeologically responsible
and visitor-friendly. His Excellency, Mr. Akel Biltaji, Minister
of Tourism and Antiquities, has visited Tall al-`Umayri and
the MPP-U camp on several occasions to provide ideas and
encouragement. Dr. Ghazi Bisheh, former Director-General
of the Department of Antiquities, has been actively engaged
in the work of MPP for years, offering assistance in ways
too numerous to list. So has the current Director-General
of the Department of Antiquities, Dr. Fawwaz al-Kraysheh,
been helpful. Mr. Abdel Sami` Abu Diyyeh, in charge of Cultural
Management Resources for the Department, supervised the first
phase of reconstruction at `Umayri in 1999. Dr. Raouf Abujaber
and other members of the Abujaber family have been extremely
generous in allowing us to excavate on land belonging to
them. Drs. Pierre and Patricia Bikai, he as Director of the
American Center of Oriental Research, have led the way in
preparing sites for presentation. Department of Antiquities
representatives, members of the MPP-U core staff, foreign
and local participants in the project and scores of local
laborers all deserve our appreciation for their help in making
MPP-U a leading archaeological project in Jordan. We are
also deeply indebted to the consortium institutions which
underwrite the project La Sierra University, Canadian
University College, Walla Walla University and Andrews University.
We also wish to thank Rhonda Root, MPP-U artist, for her
painting of the four-room house and the editors of Biblical
Archaeology Review for permission to use several graphics
in this brochure. Another group without which we could not
have made significant advances in archaeology involves private
and corporate supporters who, through the three decades of
MPPs existence, have made possible a number of ideas
for which we have dared to dream.
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