Abstract
In Jordan’s national history, the country has struggled to create a coherent nationalism and national identity for its people in the face of the ever-changing political, economic and social circumstances of the twentieth century. Jordan's Hashemite monarchs, namely King Abdullah I and King Hussein I, worked to create different national identities for Jordan during the different periods in its history - the Mandatory Period, the Independence Period and the Modern Period – that conformed to the changing needs of their country and, they created these national identities, in part, by using archaeology – respectively, a Holy-Sacred national identity using Biblical and Christian archaeological sites, an Arab-Islamic national identity, using Arab and Islamic archaeological sites, and an Organic Jordanian national identity, using native Jordanian archaeological sites. Archaeology was used as a tool and agent by the Hashemites to uncover Jordan’s diverse historical and cultural heritages in the land in order to create national identities through a visible, shared connection between present Jordanians and the archaeologically unearthed histories, peoples and cultures of Jordan’s past. The Hashemites then used these national identities in each historical period to unify the people of Jordan, to generate a loyalty to the nation and to legitimize Hashemite rule over Jordan. While archaeology had varying degrees of success in creating these national identities and the national identities had varying degrees of success in providing unification, loyalty and legitimacy, these national identities proved to be a crucial element in Jordan’s survival as they provided less of a loyalty to the state and more of a loyalty to the Kings themselves. The national identities proved to be extensions of the personal identities that the Hashemite kings assumed and espoused and, by assuming these identities and fostering them for their people, the Hashemites created a loyalty to, unification under, and legitimacy for themselves. Ultimately, by having loyalty, unification and legitimacy created by the king and towards the king, the king became the constant in Jordanian nationalism and the stability of his figure in Jordan has enabled the country to survive.