Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942) was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. He excavated at many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt such as Abydos and Amarna. Probably his most important discovery was that of the Merneptah Stele. Image File history File linksMetadata WMFPetrie. ... Image File history File linksMetadata WMFPetrie. ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1853 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... July 28 is the 209th day (210th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 156 days remaining. ... 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... Egyptology is the scientific study of Ancient Egypt and Egyptian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of ancient history and archaeology. ... Abydos (Arabic: أبيدوس), one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, stood about 11 km (6 miles) west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10 N. The Egyptian name was Abdju (technically, 3bdw, hieroglyphs shown to the right), the hill of the symbol or reliquary, in which the sacred head... Amarna The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below) (Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnä) is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of al-Minya, some 58 km (38 miles) south of the city of... The Merneptah Stele is the reverse of a stela erected by Amenhotep III written by Merneptah. ...

Life

Early life

Born in Maryon Road, Charlton, Kent (now S.E.London), England, Petrie was the grandson of Captain Matthew Flinders, explorer of the Australian coastline. Petrie was raised in a devout Christian household (his father being Plymouth Brethren), and was educated at home. His father, a surveyor, taught his son how to survey accurately, laying the foundation for a career excavating and surveying ancient sites in Egypt and the Levant. Charlton may refer to: Places Charlton was a village near Filton, Bristol in England but was demolished in order to extend the runway at Filton Airfield. ... Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2005 est. ... The English naval captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was one of the most accomplished navigators and chartmakers of his age. ... A Christian is a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, referred to as Christ. ... The Plymouth Brethren are a Christian Evangelical religious movement that began in Dublin, Ireland and England in the late 1820s. ... The Levant Levant is an imprecise geographical term historically referring to a large area in the Middle East south of the Taurus Mountains, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on the west, and by the northern Arabian Desert and Upper Mesopotamia to the east. ...

Flinders Petrie was encouraged from childhood of his inborn vocation in archaeology. At age 8 he was being tutored in French, Latin, and Greek, until he had a collapse. After that he became self taught. He read endlessly until he knew every page of it. But long after he would amuse his students with the true story of having ventured his first archeological opinion also at age eight. It occured when friends on a visit to the Petrie family were describing the unearthing of a Roman villa in the isle of Wight. The boy was horrified at hearing the rough shovelling out of the contents, and protested that the earth should be pared away, inch by inch, to see all that was in it and how it lay. "All that I have done since," he wrote when he was in his late seventies," was there to begin with, so true it is that we can only develop what is born in the mind. I was already in archeology by nature."

Stonehenge and Giza

After surveying British prehistoric monuments in his teenage years (commencing with the late Romano-British 'British Camp' that lay within yards of his family home in Charlton) in attempts to understand their geometry (at 19 tackling Stonehenge), Petrie travelled to Egypt early in 1880 to apply the same principles in a survey of the Great Pyramid at Giza, making him the first to investigate properly how they were constructed (many theories had been advanced on this, and Petrie read them all, but none were based on first hand observation or logic - the English astronomer Piazzi Smith, for example, argued that the number of stones in each row represents the upward rise of civilization). ancient rocks rock. ... 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Great Pyramid of Giza from a 19th century stereopticon card photo. ... hi i am from michgan and ohio state sucks and michigan is so going to win the football game vs. ...

On that visit he was appalled by the rate of destruction of monuments (some listed in guidebooks had been worn away completely since then) and mummies (once the treasures had been removed, the mummies were then used by Egyptians for fuelling trains and steamships - he often heard the cry "We need more steam, throw a pharoah on the fire!"). He described Egypt as "a house on fire, so rapid was the destruction" and felt his duty to be that of a "salvage man, to get all I could, as quickly as possible and then, when I was 60, I would sit and write it all down"

Tanis

Having returned to England at the end of 1880, Petrie wrote a number of articles and then met Amelia Edwards, journalist and patron of the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society), who became his strong supporter and later appointed him as Professor at her Egyptology chair at UCL. Impressed by his scientific approach, they offered him work as the successor to Édouard Naville. Petrie accepted the position and was given the sum of £250 per month to cover the excavation’s expenses. In November 1884, Petrie arrived in Egypt to begin his excavations. Amelia Ann Blandford Edwards (7 June 1831 _ 15 April 1892) was an English novelist, journalist, lady traveller and Egyptologist. ... The Egypt Exploration Society (abbreviated EES) is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology. ... The Egypt Exploration Society (abbreviated EES) is the foremost learned society in the United Kingdom promoting the field of Egyptology. ... Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942) was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. ... Captaine Henri Édouard Naville (1844-1926) was a Swiss egyptologist. ... 1884 (MDCCCLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Tuesday (click on link to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

He first went to a New Kingdom site at Tanis, with 170 workmen. He cut out the middle man role of foreman on this and all subsequent excavations, taking complete overall control himself and removing pressure on the workmen from the foreman to find finds quickly but sloppily. Though he was regarded as an amateur and dilettante by more established Egyptologists, this made him popular with his workers, who found several small but significant finds that would have been lost under the old system. The New Kingdom is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BCE and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. ... The word Tanis has a number of meanings: Tanis Diena - A Latvian pig festival Tanis, Egypt - An archaeological temple site and capital of Egypts 21st and 22nd Dynasty Tanis Half-Elven - A character in the Dragonlance novels & game products Tanis, Manche, a commune of the Manche département, in... middle_man is a program created by Krunch Software with the sole purpose of Enhancing your AIM experience. The AOL Instant Messenger plug-in enhances and extends funtionality of AIM to its users. ... (ital. ...

Sehel

By the end of the Tanis dig he ran out of funding but, reluctant to leave the country in case this was renewed, he spent 1887 cruising the Nile taking photographs as a less subjective record than sketches. During this time he also climbed rope ladders at Sehel island near Aswan to draw and photograph thousands of early Egyptian inscriptions on a cliff face, recording embassies to Nubia, famines and wars. By the time he reached Aswan, a telegram had reached there to confirm the renewal of his funding. Aswan (Arabic: أسوان Aswān) (, population 200,000) is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate. ... Today Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan, but in ancient times it was an independent kingdom. ...

Fayum

He then went straight to the burial site at Fayum, particularly interested in post-30 BC burials, which had not previously been fully studied. He found intact tombs and 60 of the famous portraits, and discovered from inscriptions on the mummies that they were kept with their living families for generations before burial. Under Auguste Mariette's arrangements, he sent 50% of these portraits to the Egyptian department of antiquities. However, later finding that Gaston Maspero placed little value on them and left them open to the elements in a yard behind the museum to deteriorate, he angrily demanded that they all be returned, forcing Maspero to pick the 12 best examples for the museum to keep and then returning 48 to Petrie, which he sent to London for a special showing at the British Museum. Al Fayyum is one of the governorates of Egypt located in the centre of the country. ... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC - 30s BC - 20s BC 10s BC 0s 10s 20s Years: 35 BC 34 BC 33 BC 32 BC 31 BC 30 BC 29 BC 28 BC 27 BC 26 BC... A statue of Auguste Mariette in his home city of Boulogne-sur-Mer. ... Main entrance of the Egyptian Museum The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to the most extensive collection of pharaonic antiquities in the world. ... Gaston Camille Charles Maspero (June 23, 1846 - June 30, 1916), French Egyptologist, was born in Paris, his parents being of Lombard origin. ... The centre of the museum was redeveloped in 2000 to become the Great Court, with a tessellated glass roof by Buro Happold and Foster and Partners surrounding the original Reading Room. ...

Resuming work, he discovered the village of the Pharoahnic tomb-workers.

Palestine

In 1890, Petrie made the first of his many forays into Palestine, leading to much important archaeological work. His six-week excavation of Tell el-Hesi (which was mistakenly identified as Lachish) that year represents the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land. Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Tell el-Hesi is an archaeological site in Israel. ... Lachish was a town located in the Shephelah, or maritime plain of Palestine (Joshua 10:3, 5; 12:11). ... The phrase The Holy Land (Arabic الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Hebrew ארץ הקודש: Standard Hebrew Éreẓ haQodeš, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÉreṣ haqQāḏēš; Latin Terra Sancta) generally refers to Israel, otherwise known as Palestine (sometimes including Jordan, Syria and parts of Egypt). ...

At another point in the late nineteenth-century (year needed), Petrie surveyed a group of tombs in the Wadi al-Rababah (the biblical Hinnom) of Jerusalem, largely dating to the Iron Age and early Roman periods. Here, in these ancient monuments, Petrie discovered two different metrical systems. Note: Tanach quotes are from the Judaica press Tanach. ... Jerusalem (Hebrew:  , Yerushaláyim or Yerushalaim; Arabic:  , al-Quds (the Holy); official Arabic in Israel: أورشليم القدس, Urshalim-al-Quds (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names) is the capital and largest city[1] of the State of Israel with a population of 724,000 (as of May 24, 2006[2...

Tel-al-Amarna

Next, from 1891, he worked on the temple of Akhenaten at Tel-al-Amarna, discovering a 300 square foot New Kingdom painted pavement of garden and animals and hunting scenes. This became a tourist attraction but, as there was no direct access to the site, tourists wrecked neighbouring fields on their way to it. This made local farmers deface the paintings, and it is only thanks to Petrie's paintings that their original state is known. For other uses, see Akhenaten (disambiguation). ... Amarna The site of Amarna (commonly known as el-Amarna or incorrectly as Tel el-Amarna; see below) (Arabic: العمارنة al-‘amārnä) is located on the east bank of the Nile River in the modern Egyptian province of al-Minya, some 58 km (38 miles) south of the city of... The New Kingdom is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BCE and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. ...

UCL

The Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College, London was set up and funded in 1892 by Amelia Edwards. Petrie's supporter since 1880, she made him its first holder. He continued to excavate in Egypt after taking up the professorship, training many of the best archaeologists of the day. In 1913 Petrie sold his large collection of Egyptian antiquities to University College, London, where it is now housed in the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology. The Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology is a university professorial chair held at University College London. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Front Quad University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London is run by the Institute of Archaeology, which is part of the University of London. ...

1920 to 1941

1923 saw Petrie knighted for services to British archaeology and Egyptology. In 1926, the focus of Petrie’s work shifted permanently to Palestine (though he did become interested in early Egypt, in 1928 digging a cemetery at Luxor which proved so huge that he devised an entirely new excavation system, including comparison charts for finds which are still used today). He began excavating several important sites in the southwestern region of Palestine, including Tell el-Jemmeh and Tell el-Ajjul. In 1933, on retiring from his professorship, he moved permanently to Jerusalem, where he lived with Lady Petrie at the British School of Archaeology, then temporarily headquartered at the American School of Oriental Research (today called the Albright Institute). 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The American Schools of Oriental Research, founded in 1900, supports and encourages the study of the peoples and cultures of the Near East, from the earliest times to the present. ...

Death

Upon his death in Jerusalem in 1942, influenced by his interest in eugenics, Petrie donated his head to science, specifically the Royal College of Surgeons of London, so that it could be studied for its high intellectual capacity. It was duly severed and the body, minus its head, was interred separately in the Protestant Cemetery on Mt. Zion. However, due to the wartime conditions in the area (then still under threat from Rommel's advance in the North African campaign until the Second Battle of El Alamein later that year), his head was delayed in transit from Jerusalem to London, and was eventually lost. 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Eugenics is the self-direction of human evolution: Logo from the Second International Congress of Eugenics, 1921, depicting it as a tree which unites a variety of different fields. ... The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales. ... Dormition Church, situated on the modern Mount Zion Zion (Hebrew: צִיּוֹן, tziyyon; Tiberian vocalization: tsiyyôn; transliterated Zion or Sion) is a term that most often designates the land of Israel and its capital Jerusalem. ... During World War II, the North African Campaign, also known as the Desert War, took place in the North African desert from September 13, 1940 to May 13, 1943. ... Combatants British 8th Army German Panzer Army Africa Commanders Bernard Montgomery Erwin Rommel Strength 250,000 men 1,030 tanks 900 guns 530 aircraft 90,000 men 500 tanks 500 guns 350 aircraft Casualties 13,500 dead and wounded 13,000 dead 46,000 wounded or captured The Second Battle...

Legacy

His painstaking recording and study of artifacts set new standards in archaeology. He said himself:

I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details.

By linking styles of pottery with periods, he was the first to use seriation in Egyptology, a new method for establishing the chronology of a site. // Seriaton in Archaeology Seriation is a method in relative dating in which artifacts of numerous sites, in the same culture, are placed in chronological order. ...

Publications

A number of Petrie's discoveries were presented to the Royal Archaeological Society and described in the society's Archaeological Journal by his good friend and fellow archaeologist, Flaxman Charles John Spurrell. Petrie published a total of 97 books. Flaxman Charles John Spurrell (6 September 1842 - 25 February 1915), the archaeologist and photographer, was born in Mile End, Stepney, London, the eldest son of Dr. Flaxman Spurrell, M.D., F.R.C.S., and Ann Spurrell (who were also cousins). ...

Selected Bibliography

• W.M.F. Petrie, Tel el-Hesy (Lachish). London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
• W.M.F. Petrie “The Tomb-Cutter’s Cubits at Jerusalem,” Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1892 Vol. 24: 24–35.

For a complete bibliography of Petrie’s works, published in 1972, refer:

• E.P. Uphill, “A Bibliography of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942)," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 1972 Vol. 31: 356–379.

Further reading

• Joseph A. Callaway, “Sir Flinders Petrie, Father of Palestinian Archaeology.” Biblical Archaeology Review, 1980 Vol. 6, Issue 6: 44–55.
• Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology, University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. ISBN 0-299-14624-3
• Margaret S. Drower, Letters from the Desert – the Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie, Aris & Philips, 2004. ISBN 0-85668-748-0

The Biblical Archaeology Review (illuminating archaeology and the Bible) is the organ of the non-denominational Bible Archaeology Society which has been combining the excitement of archaeology and the latest in Bible scholarship since 1974 [1]. The Societys founder and editor-in-chief is Hershel Shanks. ...

External links

• William Matthew Flinders Petrie: The Father of Egyptian Archaeology, 1853-1942
• The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology
• Resources on Biblical Archaeology
• Article from Barre Montpelier TimeArgus
• Works by William Matthew Flinders Petrie at Project Gutenberg