Really old stuff

Just for the history buffs out there, a couple of photos of the truely old stuff that Jordan has thrown up which I came across in the Citadel in town. The Citadel itself is a mish mash of different styles, having been variously inhabited for the last 6,000 years or so - bronze age cave, roman temple, byzantium church and Umiyyad mosque all next to each other. And then there's all the great stuff in the teeny tiny museum ...



The temple of Hercules at the Citadel, built by Marcus Aurelius. Great views over Amman, you can see whay so many civilisations chose this site ...








Byzantium church (6th century) in the foreground, top of the Umayyid audience hall behind (8th century but built over another byzantium church)







Well, this is apparently the oldest statue in the world, dated at somewhere between 6,000 to 8,000BC - they dug up this and a whole collection of similar statues in Ain Ghazal in Jordan. Amazing how it looks like something you'd see in a modern art gallery in New York ...












And this one's for that special girl who I know likes anything suitably gruesome - an 6,000 year old child' skeleton in its burial pot ...