Columns as Cultural Capital: The Jordanian Practice of Gifting Archaeological Objects

At the 1964–1965 World’s Fair, held in Flushing Meadows, Queens, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan erected a pavilion. Adjacent to the pavilion was a column from the Roman city of Jerash, one of Jordan’s most important archaeological sites. The Jordanian government presented this column as a gift to New York City. This chapter explores the context and significance of the gift—both for Jordan and for New York. The Column of Jerash and the presentation of archaeologically and historically significant sites—often associated with classical antiquity or the Bible—in the Jordan Pavilion demonstrate that one of the pavilion’s major goals was to promote tourism. The pavilion also aimed to garner political and diplomatic support in the region to counter Israel and its ambitions. The gift of the Column of Jerash is contextualized within the larger Jordanian practice of gifting capitals to universities, including Princeton, Harvard, and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as gifting a column to the city of Philadelphia between 1965 and 1975. This practice is also compared to the Jordanian gift of a Dead Sea Scroll Jar to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1964 and the legal and strategic sale of antiquities by the Jordanian government from the 1950s through the 1970s to promote the study of Jordan and tourism to the country.