A STRATEGY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A TOURIST TRAIL OF THE DECAPOLIS SITES IN NORTHERN JORDAN by FAKHRIEH MAJED QASIM DARABSEH A Thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity College of Arts and Law The University of Birmingham July 2010 1 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT This study investigates how the diverse archaeology of Jordan can be presented to different segmentations of visitors. As a country with abundant archaeological resources and heritage potential for tourism industry, there should be serious consideration toward the management and development of such resources in order to preserve them for future generations on the one hand and to provide economic benefits both to the local community and the national economy. The diversification of heritage tourism packages, and proposals for different alternatives among the potential of variety of different heritage sources, is one of the more efficient ways of spreading the load across the major sites in the country. As a case study, the creation of a tourist trail among the Decapolis cities is outlined since these cities form an important component of the history of Jordan and exploring their variety and diversity may give them further meaning and significance. Some of the cities suffer from an overloading of visitors while others do not receive an adequate measurement of attention either by the authorities or by the visitors themselves; therefore, this study focuses on the site of Abila as an example of how a city with significant potential for tourism might be developed through presentation of the city using non-invasive techniques such as geophysics. The study explores these issues in the context of heritage management and related legislation in Jordan alongside consideration of the community‟s role in tourism and how their aspirations are also met. i DEDICATION `To the soul of my Mother, although it is late, I am so proud that I have made one of your dreams come true! ` `To my Father, my Husband and my beloved Kids; Assal, Rashed, Aram and Mohammed. ` ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to take this opportunity to first and foremost thank “Almighty Allah” for being my strength and guide in the writing of this thesis. Without Him, I would not have had the wisdom or the physical ability to do so. I also would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. Roger White. His wide knowledge and his logical way of thinking have been of great value for me. His understanding, encouraging, kindness and personal guidance have provided me with an excellent basis for the present thesis. I am deeply grateful to my co- supervisor, Dr John Carman, for his detailed and constructive comments, and for his important support throughout this work. And I wish also to express my warm and sincere thanks to my advisor Dr. Alasdair Livingston for his valuable advice and remarkable support, and special thanks to his very kind wife‟ Berget‟ . Many thanks to Mr Julian Bowsher from Museum of London Archaeology for the valuable information he provided. I owe my most sincere gratitude to Dr. Wasif Sekhaneh, for his valuable advice and friendly help, support and encouragement. My warm thanks are due to Father Elia Khalife from the Antioch Centre in Oxford for his kind feelings; encouragement and support. I also wish to thank all the staff in the IAA for their sympathetic help and their help with the administrative work. Also a big “thank you” goes to my PhD friends at the University of Birmingham and other universities in the UK; Shahad Al-Janabi, Maha Ayoush, Hesham Al- Ahmed, Rasha Al Rubaee, Sada Al Janabi, Wageeh Michael, Eirini Zisimou, Suleiman Farajat from the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, a special „thank you‟ goes to my lovely house-mates; Toral Jakria and Irina Shifner, for their feelings, concern and nice company. I wish to extend my thanks to my sister and friend Mrs Woroud Samarah and Mr Salameh Fayyad, for their kind and informative support during the fieldwork conduction at the archaeological sites of Abila and Umm Qais, and also I would like to thank Miss Katrina Hamarneh from the DoA of Jordan and all the members of the Department for their support and the valuable information they have provided. I owe my loving thanks and utmost appreciations and respect to my husband Mr Abdulmajeed (Amjad) Darabseh for his support, understanding and encouragement. Also I cannot thank enough my cooperative daughter, friend and sister, Assal for her kindness and courage in taking a massive part of the responsibility to look after the family during my absence. Also my kisses and special thanks to my pretty daughter Aram, and my gorgeous sons Rashed and Mohammed .They have lost a lot due to my research abroad and without their encouragement, patience and understanding it would not have been possible for me to finish this work. My special gratitude is due to my beloved Father, my step mother, my brothers‟ Ali and Mohammad, my sister‟ Aia‟ and their families, and to all my relatives especially aunt Nahla for their loving support and prayers. And finally I would like to extend my thanks to Yarmouk University in Jordan for the financial support during the study years of this research. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ i DEDICATION.................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ x LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER ONE : INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Nature of the Study ............................................................................................. 1 1.2 Aims of the study ................................................................................................ 3 1.3 Methods of the Study .......................................................................................... 5 1.3.1 Methodological Approaches to Data Collections .................................. 5 1.4 Methodology approaches of the study ................................................................ 9 1.5 Interest in Cultural Heritage Studies ................................................................ 11 1.6 Objectives of the Study ..................................................................................... 12 1.7 Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 13 1.8 Organization and Contents of the Study ........................................................... 14 CHAPTER TWO : CULTURAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT 17 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 17 2.2 Components of Cultural Heritage ..................................................................... 20 2.3 Values of Cultural Heritage .............................................................................. 23 2.3.1 Cultural Values ..................................................................................... 26 2.3.2 Economic Values ................................................................................... 27 2.3.3 Scientific Values .................................................................................... 28 2.3.4 Social Values ......................................................................................... 29 2.3.5 Historical Values ................................................................................... 29 2.3.6 Aesthetic Values .................................................................................... 30 2.3.7 Symbolic Values .................................................................................... 31 2.4 Universal Documents ........................................................................................ 32 iv 2.5 World Heritage Sites ......................................................................................... 33 2.6 World Heritage List........................................................................................... 35 2.7 Public Awareness and Involvement of Local Community .............................. 40 2.8 Cultural Heritage Management as a Profession ............................................... 41 2.9 Cultural Heritage Management and the Public