THE BIBLE WAS MY TREASURE MAP

by Paul Ilton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 1958

Dr. Ilton's archeological antiquities comprise one of the largest of private collections in America, and this book, published some nine months after his death, gives the personal adventure in archeology behind the ""finds"". His goal was the discovery of antiquities which would ""confirm"" the Bible, and as a free lance archeologist, largely self taught (though his passionate determination led him to Dr. Flinders Petrie as a student) he operated to forge this weapon against skepticism, from 1925 on. His greatest asset was his gift for understanding the Arabs; he learned their tongue, he never felt that he stopped in making friends at all levels. This is not a consecutive record of his life; perhaps others will achieve that. Rather it is a collection of episodes in which danger in desert encounters with terrorists and fanatics failed to turn him from his goal. Sometimes it was a chance recognition of an etymological source, sometimes identification of a many times told tale with an ancient scrap of history, sometimes sheer intuition-and always persistent and dedicated determination that led him from Alexander and Cairo to Awan and the Valley of the Kings, from Jerusalem to Beisan, to the Ain Shems region, to Cana in Galilee, to Samaria, to Umm Qeis, to the Valley of Ge-Hinnom, to the Abyssinian mountains -- the length and breadth of the ancient lands of Old and New Testament. It is a sort of detective story in archeology, unorthodox and exciting reading. This is not a book to be confused with Ernest Wright's Biblical Archaeology (Westminster) or Werner Keller's The Bible as History (Morrow), both of which pursue the findings of archeology as related to biblical history. This is the story of the archeologist himself, seeking to recapture an ancient era.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1958

Categories: NONFICTION