Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Fantasy Treasure Map of Anclote. Source: Discovering Anclote's Hidden Treasure - NatureCoaster.com |
A few years ago a TV producer contacted me and said he was looking for true treasure maps. He said, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find an authentic treasure map." Actually, I did believe it. Most treasure maps are literary devices, fantasy, hoaxes or game pieces. Authentic treasure maps are very scarce.
Many people refer to the Copper Scroll of Qumran as the "first" treasure map. Appearing to be from the very early years of the Christian era, the copper scroll lists the locations of 60 treasures, which are precious artifacts and materials from the treasuries of the First Temple, which was destroyed in 586 BC. Of course, there is a lot of speculation about the treasures of the Copper Scroll, which seem to be associated with the Dead Sea Scrolls even though they were not found at the same time or in the same caves as the Dead Sea scrolls. The Dead Sea Scrolls include some of the earliest copies of Biblical texts, such as the book of Isaiah.
See The Copper Scroll - The Ancient Treasure Map That Points to Riches (unbelievable-facts.com) and/or Copper Scroll.pdf (tusculum.edu). The first gives a basic summary and the second a more academic analysis.
One map that you probably know about is the Bernard Romans map that provided a clue to the location of the 1715 wrecks.
I wouldn't actually call the Romans map, which appeared in Romans' book, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida (originally published 1775), a treasure map. Its primary purpose was not to indicate the location of a treasure.
Here is a bit of what Wikipedia says about Bernard Romans.
In 1766–67, he commanded the sloop, Mary. On his first voyage, the ship went aground on the Dry Tortugas, but he was able to get the ship off and reach port. On his second voyage, the ship was lost near Cape Florida (Key Biscayne). Having lost much of his personal wealth with the wreck of the Mary, Romans turned to surveying. He obtained employment as deputy surveyor of Georgia. He also accepted private commissions to survey land grants in East Florida, which had come under British control at the end of the French and Indian War.
In 1768, Romans became principal deputy surveyor for the British Colonies of Virgina, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and West Florida. Starting in 1769 Romans surveyed the coastal waters of East Florida. Later that year, his boat sank in the Manatee River near Tampa Bay. Romans walked overland from there to St. Augustine. Well aware of the historical significance of where he walked, he later wrote that he had been "on Ferdinando Soto's tract". He outfitted another boat, at his own expense, and resumed surveying the coast in September 1770. He reached Pensacola, Florida in August 1771, having recorded depth soundings, good harbors, and sources of fresh water, and drafted coastal charts, for much of the East Florida coast. See Bernard Romans - Wikipedia.
As it turns out, Romans created his share of targets for nautical archaeology. Frank Hudson places a sunken skiff of Romans near the mouth of Little Manatee Creek (near Ruskin).
If you want to read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls, one of the ones I read is The Lost Prophecies of the Qumran by Josh Peck (2020). That one has only a brief discussion of the Copper Scroll, but gets into a lot of Biblical history, including early Biblical texts found in the scrolls and the Qumran community as it relates to Biblical history.
You might remember that John the Baptist ate locusts (Matthew 3:4). The Damascus Document, among the Dead Sea Scrolls, actually provides instructions for preparing locusts as follows: And all the locusts, according to their kind, shall be put into fire or into water while they are still alive, as this is the regulation for their species.
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If you really want to research old documents, unless you have studied the ancient languages, reading the old handwriting can difficult to impossible. But there is help. Here is a paleography web site that provides apps that will help you a lot. You can find various languages, including Spanish. Here are some links to try.
'sp-Spanish Handwriting(english) (byu.edu)
Reading The Documents (byu.edu)
You can find an app that will allow you to type in English words and see what they would look like, so if you think an unknown word might be one word or another you can type them in and see wh they should look like. Look for the script generator tool.
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| Source: MagicSeaWeed.com. |
Get your equipment in order. This will be the best chance we've had for a while.
As you can see, the peak surf is not predicted to be around Tuesday.
Here is the Thursday morning NHC map.
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| Source: nhc.noaa.gov. |
Good hunting
TreasureGuide@comcast.net