Jordan · Fine-Art-Adjacent Workshop Craft (mosaic-making)
No single standardized local term documented beyond general reference to the craft
The creation of mosaics by pressing ceramic, stone, or glass fragments into wet plaster, historically used to decorate the floors, walls, and ceilings of buildings across Jordan primarily between the first and eighth centuries AD, depicting scenes of everyday life, religious stories, and mythological themes. Madaba, one of the oldest continuously existing cities in the world, is specifically famous for the Madaba Map of the Holy Land, an extraordinary mosaic masterpiece housed within the floor of the Church of St George, made in the sixth century AD and historically used to guide pilgrims making their way between holy sites across the region -- a genuinely remarkable case of a craft object serving simultaneously as devotional art, historical record, and practical navigational tool. Madaba has consequently earned the title City of Mosaics, and is home today to the Madaba Institute for Mosaic Art and Restoration, where local students learn the hand-craft of mosaic-making alongside the scientific preservation and restoration of the country's historic mosaic treasures; the city functions as a genuine hub for local mosaic artisans, workshops, and shops. Handmade mosaic crafts remain very popular as gifts and souvenirs, providing local artisans with the majority of their income, ranging from small items such as coasters and picture frames to large items such as wall hangings and decorated furniture.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not independently inscribed
The preparation and communal serving of mansaf, lamb seasoned with aromatic herbs and cooked in dried fermented yogurt (jameed), served atop a large shared platter of rice and flatbread, sprinkled with almonds, pine kernels, and other nuts.
The layering of naturally colored sand within glass bottles to compose detailed desert scenes -- undulating dunes, camels, and, at the buyer's request, names or words -- a distinctive Jordanian craft directly self-taught as a child by…
The hand-crafting of goat-skin leather goods -- candle lanterns, nature boxes, and other decorative and functional gifts -- by local Bedouin women of Feynan, a remote desert region in southern Jordan.
The hand-spinning and ground-loom weaving of long woolen and goat-hair strips used to construct the beit al-sha'ar, literally the 'house of hair,' among the largest woven structures ever built, produced by Bedouin women across Jordan's…
The making of niello jewelry -- silver decorated with a black metallic alloy inlay -- in As-Salt, a Jordanian town where craftsmen originally from Nablus settled and established the technique, which remains in high local demand today.
The wheel-thrown production of remarkably thin, egg-shell-like painted pottery bowls, a technique historically developed by the Nabataeans, the ancient civilization who built Petra, and directly documented as demonstrating a highly skilled…
The application of vivid, glossy bicycle and enamel paint onto board or canvas in bold, naive, narrative style, founded by Edward Saidi Tingatinga (who both worked and died at Muhimbili Hospital, Dar es Salaam) and originating as a…
The sculpting and painting of raised geometric relief patterns from cow dung and natural pigment by Rwandan artisans, predominantly women, of the eastern Kirehe District (Nyakarambi/Nyakarimbi villages).
The Norwegian rosemaling tradition — the distinctive Norwegian folk painting style of flowing acanthus and flower motifs that decorated the furniture and household objects of rural Norway from the 18th century.
The Dalmålning tradition — the distinctive Dalarna wall and ceiling painting tradition whose Kurbits (a stylized gourd plant) floral motif combined with biblical narrative scenes was the primary decorative art of Dalarna farmhouses from…
The ancestral tattooing tradition of the Marquesas Islands (French Polynesia) in which the entire body -- including the face -- is progressively covered over years or decades with dense geometric patterns (kake · ipu · etua) encoded with…
The application of gold leaf (23.75-carat gold beaten to 0.1 micron thickness) to furniture, picture frames, and architectural elements in the Paris tradition.