Flinders Petrie
Sir Flinders Petrie FRS FBA | |
|---|---|
Petrie in 1903 | |
| Born | William Matthew Flinders Petrie 3 June 1853 Charlton, London, United Kingdom |
| Died | 29 July 1942 (aged 89) |
| Resting place | Mount Zion Cemetery |
| Known for | Proto-Sinaitic script, Merneptah Stele, pottery seriation[2] |
| Spouse |
Hilda Urlin (m. 1896) |
| Awards |
|
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Egyptology |
| Doctoral students | Howard Carter |
Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie FRS FBA (3 June 1853 – 29 July 1942), commonly known as simply Sir Flinders Petrie, was an English 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 Irish-born 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 pottery and ceramic findings.[7] Petrie has been denounced for his pro-eugenics views; he was a dedicated believer in the superiority of the Northern peoples over the Latinate and Southern peoples.[8]
He has been referred to as the "father of Egyptian archaeology".[9]
- ^ Smith, Sidney (1945). "William Matthew Flinders Petrie. 1853–1942". Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society. 5 (14): 3–16. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1945.0001. 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.
- ^ "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
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Drower, 1995, p.221was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Nir Hasson (8 August 2012). "Paying Homage to Pioneering Archaeologist Who Lost His Head". Haaretz. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Silberman, 1999was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Stevenson, A. (2015). The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections (p. 120). Ucl Press.