Flinders Petrie
Sir Flinders Petrie FBA | |
---|---|
Born | William Matthew Flinders Petrie 3 June 1853 |
Died | 28 July 1942 | (aged 89)
Resting place | Mount Zion Cemetery |
Known for | Proto-Sinaitic script, Merneptah Stele, pottery seriation[2] |
Spouse | |
Awards |
|
Scientific career | |
Fields | Egyptology |
Doctoral students | Howard Carter |
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie FRS FBA ( 3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts.[3] He held the first chair of Egyptology in the United Kingdom, and excavated many of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt in conjunction with his wife, Hilda Urlin.[4] Some consider his most famous discovery to be that of the Merneptah Stele,[5] an opinion with which Petrie himself concurred.[6] Undoubtedly at least as important is his 1905 discovery and correct identification of the character of the Proto-Sinaitic script, the ancestor of almost all alphabetic scripts.
Petrie developed the system of dating layers based on
He has been referred to as the "father of Egyptian archaeology".[9]
Early life
Petrie was born on 3 June 1853 in Charlton, Kent, England, the son of William Petrie (1821–1908) and Anne (née Flinders) (1812–1892). Anne was the daughter of British Captain Matthew Flinders, who led the first circumnavigation of Australia (and after whom Petrie was named).[3] William Petrie was an electrical engineer who developed carbon arc lighting and later developed chemical processes for Johnson, Matthey & Co.[10]
Petrie was raised in a Christian household (his father being a member of the Plymouth Brethren), and was educated at home. He had no formal education. His father taught his son how to survey accurately, laying the foundation for his archaeological career. At the age of eight, he was tutored in French, Latin, and Greek, until he had a collapse and was taught at home. He also ventured his first archaeological opinion aged eight, when friends visiting the Petrie family were describing the unearthing of the Brading Roman Villa in the Isle of Wight. The boy was horrified to hear 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.[11] "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 archaeology by nature."[12]
Academic career
The chair of Edwards Professor of Egyptian Archaeology and Philology at University College London was set up and funded in 1892 following a bequest from Amelia Edwards, who died suddenly in that year. Petrie's supporter since 1880, Edwards had instructed that he should be its first incumbent. He continued to excavate in Egypt after taking up the professorship, training many of the best archaeologists of the day. In 1904, Petrie published Methods and Aims in Archaeology, the definitive work of his time, in which he defined the goals and methodology of his profession along with the more practical aspects of archaeology—such as details of excavation, including the use of cameras in the field. Insights include the contention that research results were dependent on the personality of the archaeologist, who, he felt, needed to possess broad knowledge as well as insatiable curiosity. His own abundance of that characteristic was never questioned.[13]
In 1913, Petrie sold his large collection of Egyptian antiquities to
Petrie's mental capacity
Mr. Flinders Petrie, a contributor of interesting experiments on kindred subjects to Nature, informs me that he habitually works out sums by aid of an imaginary sliding rule, which he sets in the desired way and reads off mentally.
He does not usually visualise the whole rule, but only that part of it with which he is at the moment concerned.
I think this is one of the most striking cases of accurate visualising power it is possible to imagine.
Francis Galton, (1883).[14]
Archaeology career
In Britain
In his teenage years, Petrie surveyed British prehistoric monuments,[15] 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 he produced the most accurate survey of Stonehenge.[citation needed]
Giza survey
His father had corresponded with
Petrie's published reports of this triangulation survey, and his analysis of the architecture of Giza therein, was exemplary in its methodology and accuracy, disproving Smyth's theories and still providing much of the basic data regarding the pyramid plateau to this day. 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. 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."[citation needed]
Egypt Exploration Fund affiliation
Returning to England at the end of 1880, Petrie wrote a number of articles and then met
Tanis dig
He first went to a
Tell Nebesheh dig
In 1886, while working for the Egypt Exploration Fund, Petrie excavated at
Nile and Sehel Island
By the end of the Tanis dig, he ran out of funding but, reluctant to leave the country in case it 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.[citation needed]
Fayum burials
By the time he reached Aswan, a telegram had reached there to confirm the renewal of his funding. He then went straight to the burial site at
However, when he later found 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 return 48 to Petrie, who sent them to London for a special showing at the British Museum. Resuming work, he discovered the village of the Pharaonic tomb-workers.[18]
Palestine, Tell Hesi and Wadi Rababah
In 1890, Petrie made the first of his many forays into
Amarna
From 1891, he worked on the temple of Aten at Tell-el-Amarna, discovering a 300-square-foot (28 m2) New Kingdom painted pavement[dubious ] 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 copies that their original appearance is known.[citation needed]
Discovery of the 'Israel' or Merneptah stele
In early 1896, Petrie and his archaeological team were conducting excavations on a temple in Petrie's area of concession at Luxor.[19] This temple complex was located just north of the original funerary temple of Amenhotep III, which had been built on a flood plain.[20] They were initially surprised that this building which they were excavating
- was also attributed to Peoples of the Sea; [Wilhelm] Spiegelberg [a noted German philologist] came over to read it, and near the end of the text he was puzzled by one name, that of a people or tribe whom Merenptah had victoriously smitten-"I.si.ri.ar?" It was Petrie whose quick imaginative mind leapt to the solution: "Israel!" Spiegelberg agreed that it must be so. "Won't the reverends be pleased?" was his comment. At dinner that evening Petrie prophesied: "This stele will be better known in the world than anything else I have found." It was the first mention of the word "Israel" in any Egyptian text and the news made headlines when it reached the English papers.[20]
During the field season of 1895/6, at the Ramesseum, Petrie and the young German Egyptologist Wilhelm Spiegelberg became friends. Spiegelberg was in charge of the edition of many texts discovered by his British colleague, and Petrie offered important collections of artefacts to the University of Strasbourg. In 1897, the Kaiser-Wilhelms-Universität Straßburg gratefully conferred to Petrie the title of doctor honoris causa,[22] and in June 1902 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).[23] He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1905.[24]
Hu and Abadiya cemeteries
From 1889 to 1899, Petrie directed a team excavating over 17 cemeteries containing numerous graves between Hu and Abadiya, Egypt. The dig team included Beatrice Orme, David Randall-MacIver, Arthur Cruttenden Mace, Henrietta Lawes and Hilda Petrie. Predynastic, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Roman graves were excavated and published at 'Diospolis Parva'.[25]
Discovery of the Proto-Sinaitic script
In the winter of 1905, Petrie and his wife Hilda were conducting a series of archaeological excavations in the
Later life
In 1923, Petrie was knighted for services to British Archaeology and Egyptology.[27]
Palestine: Jemmeh and Ajjul
The focus of his work shifted permanently to Palestine in 1926. From 1927 until 1938, he excavated in Palestine under the auspices of the
Luxor and the novel excavation system
In parallel with his work in Palestine, Petrie became interested in early Egypt. In 1928, while digging a cemetery at Luxor, this proved so huge that he devised an entirely new excavation system, including comparison charts for finds, which is still used today.[citation needed]
Move to Jerusalem
In 1933, on retiring from his professorship, he moved permanently to
Death and preservation of head
Sir Flinders Petrie died in Jerusalem on 28 July 1942. His body was interred in the
There is a popular legend that Hilda brought back her husband's head in a hat box from Jerusalem after the war. But letters in the Petrie Museum archive illustrate that this legend is not true.[28]
Personal life
Petrie married
Legacy
Scientific excavation methods
Flinders Petrie's painstaking recording and study of artefacts set new standards in archaeology. He wrote: "I believe the true line of research lies in the noting and comparison of the smallest details."
Relative dating through pottery
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.
Teacher and mentor
Petrie was also responsible for mentoring and training a whole generation of Egyptologists, including Howard Carter. On the centennial of Petrie's birth in 1953, his widow Hilda Petrie created a student travel scholarship to Egypt.
Egypt findings
Many thousands of artefacts recovered during excavations led by Petrie can be found in museums worldwide.[30]
Petrie Medal for archaeology
The Petrie Medal was created in celebration of Petrie's seventieth birthday, when funds were raised to commission and produce 20 medals to be awarded "once in every three years for distinguished work in Archaeology, preferably to a British subject".[31] The first medal was awarded to Petrie himself (1925), and the first few recipients included Sir Aurel Stein (1928), Sir Arthur Evans (1931), Abbé Henri Breuil (1934), J.D. Beazley (1937), Sir Mortimer Wheeler (1950), Alan Wace (1953), and Sir Leonard Woolley (1957).[32]
Racist views
Petrie remains controversial for his pro-
Palestinian archaeology
His involvement in
Memorial
In August 2012, more than a hundred people gathered at Petrie's grave, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of his death. His headstone is marked only with his name and an ankh symbol, the Egyptian hieroglyph for "life".[38]
Published work
A number of Petrie's discoveries were presented to the
- Tel el-Hesy (Lachish). London: Palestine Exploration Fund.
- "The Tomb-Cutter's Cubits at Jerusalem," Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly, 1892 Vol. 24: 24–35.
Contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed.
- "Abydos (Egypt)". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- "Egypt". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- "Pyramid". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
- "Weights and Measures". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
Selected works
- Naukratis, Pt. I, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1886.
- Tanis, Pt. I, Egypt Exploration Fund, 1889.
- Egyptian decorative art, London, 1895.
- The Religion of Ancient Egypt (1906)
- Migrations, Anthropological Inst. of Great Britain and Ireland, 1906.
- Janus in Modern Life, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1907.
- "Neglected British History". Proceedings of the British Academy, 1917–1918. 8: 251–278. November 1917.
- Eastern Exploration – Past and Future London: Constable and Company Ltd., 1918.
- Some Sources of Human History, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1919.
- The Status of the Jews in Egypt, G. Allen & Unwin, 1922.
- The Revolutions of Civilization, Harper & Brothers, 1922.
- Gaza I-V, to up 1931
Gallery
-
Flinders Petrie, 12 years old, c. 1865.
-
Flinders Petrie, as a young man, n.d.
-
Flinders Petrie, c. 1886.
-
Flinders Petrie, by George Frederic Watts, 1900.
-
Flinders Petrie and Hilda Petrie in 1903.
-
Flinders Petrie, Luncheon Party at the House of Commons, 1908.
-
Petrie at Abydos, Egypt, 1922.
-
Petrie Exhibiting Material fromTell Farain London.
-
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, in Jerusalem, ca. late 1930s.
-
Flinders Petrie, by Ludwig Blum. Painted in Jerusalem in 1937.
References
- S2CID 161308901.
- ^ Hirst, K. Krist. "An Introduction to Seriation". About.com Archaeology. About.com. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 3 April 2011.
- ^ a b "Sir Flinders Petrie | British archaeologist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 28 June 2021.
- ^ Breaking Ground: Women in Old World Archaeology', Sharp, M. S. and Lesko, B. S. (eds)
- ^ The Biblical Archaeologist, American Schools of Oriental Research 1997, p.35
- ^ Margaret S. Drower, Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology, 1995, p.221
- ^ a b Nir Hasson (8 August 2012). "Paying Homage to Pioneering Archaeologist Who Lost His Head". Haaretz. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ a b c d Silberman, 1999
- ^ Stevenson, A. (2015). The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections (p. 120). Ucl Press.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35495. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ William Matthew Flinders Petrie, Seventy Years in Archaeology, H. Holt and Company 1932. p. 10.
- ^ Petrie, Seventy Years, p. 10.
- ^ a b "Sir Flinders Petrie | British archaeologist". 30 May 2023.
- ^ Inquiries into Human Facility and Its Development (1883), pp.66; Galton also noted (on p.66) that, in relation to the slide rule's markings, "the artist has not put in the divisions very correctly" (illustration at page 97, Plate II, Fig.34).] Galton had conducted research ("Statistics of Mental Imagery", Mind, Vol.5, No.19, (July 1880), pp.301-318.) into the extent to which eminent scientists used "mental imagery". On the basis that Galton, himself, had a great personal ability to create, manipulate and employ vivid mental imagery, he was shocked to discover that most eminent scientists not only did not habitually employ mental imagery, but were also, generally, quite incapable of generating "mental images" at will (Galton, 1880). In order to supply a contrast, Galton cited the extraordinary case of Flinders Petrie -- who could easily manipulate precise technical equipment in the spaces of his own imagination.
- ^ Stevenson, Alice. 2012. 'We seem to be working in the same line'. A.H.L.F. Pitt Rivers and W.M.F. Petrie. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 22(1): pp. 4–13.
- ^ "Sir William Flinders Petrie". Palestine Exploration Fund. 2000. Retrieved 19 November 2007.
- ISBN 1575060558
- ^ "Collections Online | British Museum". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 7 September 2022.
- ^ Drower, Flinders Petrie, pp.220–221
- ^ a b Drower, Flinders Petrie, p.221
- ^ F. Petrie, Temples of Thebes 1896, London, 1897. pls X-XIV
- ^ Frédéric Colin, "Comment la création d'une 'bibliothèque de papyrus' à Strasbourg compensa la perte des manuscrits précieux brûlés dans le siège de 1870", in La revue de la BNU, 2, 2010, p. 28-29 ; 33 ; 40–42.
- ^ "Court Circular". The Times. No. 36787. 6 June 1902. p. 10.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 25 January 2024.
- ^ "1898-99 Hu | Artefacts of Excavation". egyptartefacts.griffith.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 13 May 2021.
- ^ W. M. Flinders Petrie; C. T. Currell (1906), Researches in Sinai
- ^ "Sir (William Matthew) Flinders Petrie - National Portrait Gallery".
- ^ "The Legend of Petrie's Head: A Personal Response | UCL UCL Culture Blog".
- ^ "Flinders Petrie Blue Plaque". openplaques.org. Retrieved 3 May 2013.
- ^ "Distribution Destinations of Artefacts from British Excavations in Egypt | Artefacts of Excavation".
- ^ Peter J. Ucko and Stephen Quirke, "The Petrie Medal", Public Archaeology, vol. 5, no. 1 (2006), pp. 15-25. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/pua.2006.5.1.15?journalCode=ypua20
- ^ Sarah Strong and Helen Wang, "Sir Aurel Stein's Medals at the Royal Geographical Society", in Helen Wang (ed.) Sir Aurel Stein, Colleagues and Collections (British Museum Research Publication 184) (2012).
- ^ Petrie, Flinders (1939). "The Making of Egypt" (PDF). Archive.org. Retrieved 9 April 2024.
- .
- ^ Trigger, 1994
- ^ "A Future for the Past: Petrie's Palestinian Collection". 4 January 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ "A Future for the Past: Petrie's Palestinian Collection". Archived from the original on 24 February 2007. Retrieved 18 February 2007.
- ^ "A crowd turns out to honor (Most of) an archaeological giant". The Times of Israel.
Further reading
- Callaway, Joseph A. "Sir Flinders Petrie, Father of Palestinian Archaeology." Biblical Archaeology Review, 1980 Vol. 6, Issue 6: 44–55.
- ISBN 0-299-14624-3
- Drower, Margaret S. Letters from the Desert – the Correspondence of Flinders and Hilda Petrie, Aris & Philips, 2004. ISBN 0-85668-748-0
- Petrie, William Matthew Flinders. Seventy Years in Archaeology, H. Holt and Company 1932
- Picton, Janet; Quicke, Stephen; Roberts, Paul C. (eds). "Living Images: Egyptian Funerary Portraits in the Petrie Museum." 2007. Left Coast Press, Walnut Creek.
- Quirke, Stephen. Hidden Hands, Egyptian workforces in Petrie excavation archives, 1880–1924, London 2010 ISBN 978-0-7156-3904-7
- Schultz, Teresa and Trumpour, Mark, "The Father of Egyptology" in Canada. 2009. Journal of the American Research Centre in Egypt, No. 44, 2008. 159 – 167.
- Silberman, Neil Asher. "Petrie's Head: Eugenics and Near Eastern Archaeology", in Alice B. Kehoe and Mary Beth Emmerichs, Assembling the Past (Albuquerque, NM, 1999).
- Stevenson, Alice. "'We seem to be working in the same line'. A.H.L.F. Pitt-Rivers and W.M.F. Petrie. Bulletin of the History of Archaeology, 2012 Vol 22, Issue 1: 4–13.
- Trigger, Bruce G. "Paradigms in Sudan Archeology", International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 27, no. 2 (1994).
- Uphill, E.P. "A Bibliography of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942)," Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 1972 Vol. 31: 356–379.
- ISBN 978-1-5098-5870-5.
External links
- Media related to Flinders Petrie at Wikimedia Commons
- William Matthew Flinders Petrie: The Father of Egyptian Archaeology, 1853–1942
- Works by William Matthew Flinders Petrie at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about Flinders Petrie at Internet Archive
- Works by Flinders Petrie at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by Flinders Petrie at Open Library
- Manchester Museum
- Hilda Mary Isobel Petrie born Urlin (1871–1956)
- The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London