William Matthew Flinders Petrie

William Matthew Flinders Petrie (Born June 3, 1853 – Died July, 28 1942) was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology.

Life

William Petrie was born in Charlton, 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.

Work

After surveying British prehistoric monuments, including Stonehenge, Petrie travelled to Egypt in 1880 to survey the Great Pyramid at Giza. His interest in Egypt piqued, Petrie went on to excavate 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.

Having accomplished such impressive work at Giza, Petrie was recommended to the Egypt Exploration Fund (now the Egypt Exploration Society), who needed an archaeologist in Egypt to succeed 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.

Petrie's painstaking recording and study of artefacts set new standards in archaeology. 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. 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.

From 1892 to 1933 Petrie was the first Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College, London. This chair had been funded by Amelia Edwards, who was a strong supporter of Petrie. 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. 1923 saw Petrie knighted for services to British archaeology and Egyptology.

During his career as an Egyptologists, Petrie often may forays into Palestine where he conducted important archaeological work. For instance, his 1890 six-week excavation of Tell el-Hesi (which was mistakenly identified as Lachish), represents the first scientific excavation of an archaeological site in the Holy Land. At another point in the late nineteenth-century, 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. In 1926, the focus of Petrie’s work shifted permanently to Palestine and he began excavating several important sites in the southwestern region of the country, including Tell el-Jemmeh and Tell el-Ajjul.

Petrie spent the last few years of his life living in Jerusalem, where he died in 1942. During this period, Sir William 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). Upon his death, 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 - Petrie was no doubt, influenced by his interest in Eugenics. However, due to the wartime conditions that existed in 1942, his severed head was delayed in transport from Jerusalem to London, and was eventually lost. Petrie’s body, minus its head, was interred separately in the Protestant Cemetery on Mt. Zion.

Bibliography

• Petrie, W.M.F. 1892 . The Tomb-Cutter’s Cubits at Jerusalem. Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 24, 24–35.

• Petrie, W.M.F. 1969. Seventy Years in Archaeology. Greenwood Press Reprint. ISBN 0837122414

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2001. (original work from 1895). Egyptian Tales Translated from the Papyri (2 Vols.). Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402186258

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2001. (original work from 1905). A History of Egypt (3 Vols.). Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 0543993264

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2001. (original work from 1906). Researches in Sinai. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402175159

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2001. Syria and Egypt: From the Tell el Amarna Letters. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402195222

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2002. The Pyramids and Temples of Gizeh. Kegan Paul. ISBN 0710307098

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2005. (original work from 1907). Gizeh and Rifeh. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1421216817

• Petrie, W.M.F. 2005. (original work from 1912). The Revolutions of Civilisation. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402159315

• Petrie, W.M.F. & Duncan, John. 2005. (original work from 1906). Hyksos and Israelite Cities. Adamant Media Corporation. ISBN 1402142293

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Callaway, Joseph A. 1980. Sir Flinders Petrie, Father of Palestinian Archaeology. Biblical Archaeology Review, 6(6), 44–55.

• Dever William G. 2002. What Did the Biblical Writers Know and When Did They Know It?: What Archaeology Can Tell Us About the Reality of Ancient Israel? Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 080282126X

• Drower, Margaret S. 1995. Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology. University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 0299146243

• Drower Margaret S. 2004. Letters from the Desert: The Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie. Aris & Philips. ISBN 0856687480

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

External links

• Life in pictures – Photos of Petrie

• Biography – The Palestine Exploration Fund website

• The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology – Petrie’s Museum in London, UK

• Resources on Biblical Archaeology

• Egypt exhibit is work of 'real Indiana Jones’ - Article from Barre Montpelier TimeArgus

• Works by William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Project Gutenberg

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