Beneath The Sands Of Egypt Summary

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Following the “adventures of an unconventional archaeologist”, the autobiography Beneath the Sands of Egypt by Donald P. Ryan retells Ryan’s career in archaeology and what inspired him to desire this career. Compared to his other archaeological works, this memoir is more personal than factual. However, it does go into details about his archaeological findings and includes excerpts of works by other archaeologists, still giving it a factual appeal. Upon first glance at the title and cover of the book, the reader may think Ryan solely wrote about and focused on Egyptian archaeology, but this is not the case. While the book opens with the days before his discovery of the pharaoh Hatshepsut’s body, the following chapter travels back to his beginnings as an archaeologist. He recounts his childhood and pre-doctoral college times, but connects them to the overall theme of archaeology by telling of how they made him the archaeologist he is today. For example, when discussing his climbing hobby, he writes, “My obsession with climbing nurtured certain traits that are useful in archaeology. It developed a physical toughness required for fieldwork” (35 Ryan). Towards the middle of the memoir, he also goes into detail on his fascination with Polynesian related archaeology, which helped him to further his skills as an archaeologist. Since …show more content…
The chapter detailing Ryan’s research on rope making contains some of the most evident use of logos. For example, when describing a rope discovered by Giovanni Belzoni in 1817, Ryan includes the measurements of the rope. “Belzoni’s rope is presently 6.2 meters long (about 20 feet), including two knots, and is in seven sections. With a finished diameter of about 2 centimeters (.75 inch), it has a Z = s/s structure” (112). If the reader wished, they could check this fact, along with all of the other facts presented in the memoir, is
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to the Egyptian church—dismissing it as “Coptic tradition”—Oden’s repeated use of first to eighth-century sources, which place the evangelist in Egypt, won me to this view (pp. 18, 97, 125, 158-159, 194). Second, by raising more questions than answers, the book is a stimulating invitation for scholars, especially African students, to “dig beneath the sands” (pp. 39-40) and engage Africa’s theological legacy. An exercise that should strengthen the present African church, as noted, it also provides a…

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