Flinders Petrie
British archaeologist who pioneered scientific excavation in Egypt
- Born
- 1853, Charlton, London
- Died
- 1942, Jerusalem
- Known for
- Sequence dating; systematic excavation
- Surveyed
- Giza pyramids, 1880–82
- Knighted
- 1923
The founder of systematic Egyptian archaeology, who also published a popular 1895 translation of the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.
What is Flinders Petrie known for?
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie was born in 1853 and is often called the father of scientific archaeology in Egypt. Britannica credits him with improved field methods and with inventing sequence dating, a way of ordering sites by the changing styles of pottery and other finds. He made the first accurate survey of the Giza pyramids in 1880–82, which showed that pyramid-number mysticism of the time did not fit the measurements.
Over decades he dug at sites across Egypt and Palestine and held a chair of Egyptology at University College London. He was knighted in 1923 and died in Jerusalem in 1942.
He also edited Egyptian Tales (1895), a translation of ancient stories for general readers that includes the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor and is now in the public domain.
His 1895 Egyptian Tales is the public-domain translation of the Shipwrecked Sailor the site uses.
Sources
Pictures on profile pages are drawn placeholders, not likenesses. Public-domain portraits and photographs will replace them.