George Francis Taylor (died 28 March 2011) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

scholar, archaeologist, historian, and

numismatist A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...

. Taylor was a professor of English at the

American University in Beirut The American University of Beirut (AUB; ) is a private, non-sectarian, and independent university chartered in New York with its main campus in Beirut, Lebanon. AUB is governed by a private, autonomous board of trustees and offers programs lead ...

from 1960 until 1970. He was a member of the

Royal Numismatic Society The Royal Numismatic Society (RNS) is a learned society and charity based in London, United Kingdom which promotes research into all branches of numismatics. Its patron was Queen Elizabeth II. Membership Foremost collectors and researchers, bo ...

; he published studies on ancient coins in various numismatic books and journals. After his return from his teaching position in Beirut, he resumed teaching at the Brighton Technical College, in

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

. He is survived by his wife Norma and a daughter.

The Roman temples of Lebanon

Taylor traveled to

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and documented little known ancient sites and temples. In 1967 he published a book called 'The Roman Temples of Lebanon: a pictorial guide'. He categorized the temples of Lebanon into three groups; Temples of

Mount Hermon Mount Hermon ( / ALA-LC: ('Mountain of the Sheikh', ), , ) is a mountain, mountain cluster constituting the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. Its summit straddles the Lebanon–Syria border, border between Syria and Lebanon a ...

, Temples of the

Beqaa Valley The Beqaa Valley (, ; Bekaa, Biqâ, Becaa) is a fertile valley in eastern Lebanon and its most important farming region. Industry, especially the country's agricultural industry, also flourishes in Beqaa. The region broadly corresponds to th ...

and Temples of the Lebanese coastal plain. Taylor humbly admitted that he was only an amateur archaeologist trying to unravel the ancient mysteries of Lebanon and referred to his publication as a ''"book by an amateur, for an amateur"''. This has not stopped it being used as an authoritative reference on the subject for several decades.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, George British historians British numismatists 2011 deaths Year of birth missing