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Ammon News - AMMAN – U.S. Ambassador to Jordan Stuart E. Jones attended the ceremony marking the completion of the House XVIII ruins preservation project at Umm el-Jimal Archaeological Site near Mafraq. A $96,082 grant from the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) supported the renovation work conducted by Calvin College and Open Hand Studios in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities. House XVIII is among the largest of the 150 houses built during the the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. Umm el‐Jimal is an ancient site that includes an early Roman‐era village and an adjacent later Byzantine and early Islamic town, and was continuously occupied from the 1st to 9th centuries A.D.

During the ceremony, Ambassador Jones remarked: “Jordan is a country rich in cultural history. We applaud the efforts of our grantees to preserve and share these sites with the world. The United States looks forward to continuing to work together to assist Jordan’s efforts at cultural preservation.”

AFCP is a U.S. government program that provides direct small grant support for heritage preservation. Since its inception, ACFP has supported nearly 650 cultural heritage preservation projects in more than 120 countries, contributing more than $29 million for projects around the globe. When it established the program, Congress noted, “by our efforts to assist in preserving the heritage of other cultures, we our respect for them.”

Since 2003, the AFCP has provided nearly US $1 million in Jordan to support conservation work at the Temple of the Winged Lions, the ancient Nabatean dam in Wadi al-Jarra, and preservation of the Siq al-Mudhlim near the Dead Sea, among many projects (please see attachment for complete list).