Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 336 pages
- Published by: HarperCollins June 12, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0060854006
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0060854003
-
Book Dimensions:
9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
In this fast-paced tale that is part detective story, part travelogue and adventure story, historian Kingsley, editor of the archeology journal
Minerva, hunts for one of the most sought after ancient treasures: a golden candelabrum, a pair of silver trumpets and the jewel-covered Table of Divine Presence carried away from the Temple in Jerusalem by Vespasian in A.D. 70. Many believe that these pieces, long since disappeared, lie buried beneath the Temple Mount, while others are convinced that they are buried under the Vatican. Relying on the ancient historians Josephus and Procopius, Kingsley traces the trail of the treasure as best he can. Many in modern times have tried and failed to find the treasure, including John Allegro, the Dead Sea Scrolls expert, who used the now-famous Copper Scroll as his guide in the caves at Qumran. At the end of his travels, Kingsley visits the monastery of Saint Theodosius in the Judean wilderness, where he believes Byzantine patriarch Modestus may have hidden the treasures in the seventh century after carrying them away from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to protect them from Muslim invaders. Although we will likely never find the Temple treasure, Kingsley's bracing tale of religious intrigue grips the imagination. 16 pages of black and white photos.
(June 12) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Indiana Jones would tip his hat to Kingsley, an intrepid archaeologist who has spent 15 years pursuing a very real treasure that surpasses Hollywood's fantasies. Estimated at 50 tons of gold, the treasure of Herod's Temple fell into Roman hands when Vespasian besieged Jerusalem two millennia ago. Roman leaders lavished much of their temple plunder on the Colosseum and other projects. But Kingsley uncovers exciting evidence that a still sizable amount of the sacred trove-including the great golden candelabrum and the Table of Divine Presence-remained intact. Worth at least $1 billion today, this hoard passed through turbulent centuries under the vigilant care of powerful guardians who protected it by repeatedly moving it. It will probably disappoint some readers that, in the end, Kingsley cannot breach the suspiciously locked gates of those he identifies as the treasure's current keepers. (Only a killjoy would reveal the identity and location of these keepers.) But many readers will find that the thrill of tracing long-buried clues to those tantalizing locked gates is itself a great prize. Christensen, Bryce
Reader Reviews
Well I should have known better. I guess since Hancock has covered the Ark of the Covenant, and others have covered the Holy Grail and the Shroud of Turin, their was nothing left but, ta da, the Silver Trumpets of Truth,(cue the dramatic and or ghostly music here)and the Table of the Divine Presence" which I never heard of, or maybe the Table of Shewbread doesent sound as awesome as he attempts to make these items out as some other type of Gods CyberPhone like the think the Ark was. Basically what the Romans got were but 3rd or 4th generation attempts to recreate the original Vessels that Betzalel created for the Tabernacle in the Desert. These after the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greek all came in and helped themselves to the Temples furniture and treasury. Then there was his specious claim that the ornamental base of the Arc of Titus Menorah Depiction had to do with hellenistic and roman influences in Judea. YEA, one procurator had to agree not to march into Jerusalem with the eagle emblazoned Roman banners unfurled because even this humble image constituted a idolatrous image, and theis so called archaologist is going to tell others that this Pagan Relief of Gods and Sea Dragons on the Menorah would have stood, no problemo, in the Temple. And then quoting the writings of Theophanes, he has the vandals taking the treasure, and it explicity states that it was the treasure that Titus brought after his capture of Jerusalem. But of course this fellow was writing a couple of hundred years after this event. Not that it invalidates it, but no one ever left a personal record of having seen the items in the flesh themselves. And so now they made it to the Monastery of St Theodosius where they lay there still according to him. And of course, nobody can go in to check either. He may have a PHD in something, but until his claims are reviewed by his peer group, he is just another intellectual jumping on the naked archaelogist gravy train.
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