In his teens he started surveying earthworks and ancient monuments, and with his father he made plans of Stonehenge.
Petrie developed a fascination with the Egyptian pyramids, both from his work at the museum and curiously from Piazzi Smyth, the author of a crackpot volume, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramid.
Petrie resolved to learn the truth about pyramids, and in 1880 he sailed to Alexandria and so began a six decade career as one of England’s greatest Egyptologists.
Among the leading Egyptologists of his day, Petrie excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archeologists.
Petrie’s most important discoveries are recounted, including his unearthing of the Merneptah Stele, some of the earliest evidence of mummification and elements of Greek and Roman cultural influence in Egypt.
The Pyramid Survey 1880-82, Petrie’s first book, enhanced his reputation considerably within the narrow community of Egyptologists, despite his lack of a formal education.
In 1892 Petrie was appointed to the chair of Egyptology at University College London, which was endowed by the will of his patron Miss Amelia Edwards.
Biography of William Matthew Flinders Petrie
