Digging Up The Past

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29952, 13 October 1962, Page 3

Digging Up The Past

The Treasures of Time. Selected and edited by Leo Deuel. Souvenir Press. 312 pp. Index.

Archaeology possesses some notable writings. In this book, Dr. Leo Deuel has selected from a cavern of wealth pieces by men who made notable discoveries in toe Middle East. Each piece of writing is introduced by Dr. Deuel who gives the particular archaeologist's record and objectives, and places his work and discoveries in toe context of his period and of the development of archaeology. We find those giants of Egyptian archaeology, Mariette and Sir Flinders Petrie, pioneers of conscientious excavation, telling, Mariette, of the discovery of the Serapeum, Sir Flinders Petrie, of the discovery of a “missing link” of the pyramids. Among the most striking stories of the Egyptologists is Howard Carter’s story of toe discovery and opening of the tomb of Tutankhamen. Accounts of excavations in Mesopotamia include Layard’s discoveries at Nineveh, and Leonard Woolley’s remarkable finds at Ur, finds that changed toe whole concept of the Mesopotamian past. In the section that covers discoveries in Palestine and Syria we have Nelson Glueck's remarkable account of Ezion-geber, the “Pittsburgh of Palestine” in Biblical times, and Millar Burrows's story of toe discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The last section deals with discoveries in Anatolia ( Crete, and Greece. The book as a whole covers in a most attractive way the development of archaeology, and could introduce many persons to the fascinating study of how the past has been uncovered for us.