Flinders Petrie: A Life in Archaeology

576 Pages·1995·53.14 MB·English

by  Margaret S. Drower

FLINDERS PETRIE
WISCONSIN STUDIES IN CLASSICS
General Editors
Richard Daniel De Puma and
Barbara Hughes Fowler
FLINDERS PETRIE
A Life in Archaeology
Second Edition
MARGARET S. DROWER
The University of Wisconsin Press
Publication of this volume has been made possible in large part
through the generous support and enduring vision of Warren G. Moon.
The University of Wisconsin Press
114 North Murray Street
Madison, Wisconsin 53715
3 Henrietta Street
London WC2E 8LU, England
Copyright © 1985, 1995
Margaret S. Drower
Flinders Petrie's published and unpublished material
Copyright © 1942, 1985, The Estate of Flinders Petrie
All rights reserved
3 5 4 2
First published in Great Britain in 1985
by Victor Gollancz Ltd, 14 Henrietta Street, London WC3E 8QJ
Quotations from The Letters of T. E. Lawrence, edited by David Garnett, are reproduced
by permission of The Letters of T. E. Lawrence Trust, the Editor, and Jonathan Cape Ltd;
a short quotation from Pioneer to the Past by Charles Breasted is copyright © 1943 Charles
Breasted, copyright renewed © 1971, reprinted with the permission of Charles Scribner's
Sons.
The sketches at the ends of chapters are Petrie's own.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Drower, Margaret S.
Flinders Petrie: a life in archaeology / Margaret S. Drower.
572 p. cm.-(Wisconsin studies in classics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-299-14620-0. ISBN 0-299-14624-3 (pbk.)
I. Petrie, W. M. Flinders (William Matthew Flinders), Sir, 1853-1942.
2. Egyptologists-Great Britain-Biography. I. Title.
P]I064·P47D7 1995
932' .007202-dc20
[B) 94-42111
In gratitude to the memory ifA nn Flinders
Petrie (1909-1989), without whose help and
encouragement this book would not have
been written
NOTE
Alternative spellings of some Egyptian place
names will be found both in the text and index.
Uniformity has proved impossible, since the
orthography current in Petrie's time differs from
that in common use today. Where possible, the
spelling in Baines and Malek, Atlas oj Ancient
Egypt (1978) has been adopted.
CONTENTS
Sources and Acknowledgements page xv
Prologue XIX
Preface to the Second Edition xxiii
I The Flinders and the Petries 3
II The Making of an Archaeologist (1853-80) 13
III The Pyramid Survey (1880-82) 34
IV "Father of Pots": Delta Explorations (1883-6) 65
V Up the Nile (1886-7) 105
VI Pyramids and Portraits (1887-9) 127
VII Interlude in Palestine (1889-90) 153
VIII Tussles with M. Grebaut (1890-2) 168
IX University College, London (1892-7) 199
X Hilda (1896-8) 231
XI Most Ancient Egypt (1899-1903) 249
XII Naville and Petrie: A Clash of Personalities (1903-6)274
XIII The British School (1906-rr) 295
XIV Amulets in the Soup (19rr-14) 318
xv The War Years (1914-19) 330
XVI Egypt over the Border (1919-30) 348
XVII Jubilee (1930-33) 377
XVIII Lone Syrian Shore (1934-8) 398
XIX Sunset in Jerusalem (1938-42) 418
Notes and References 439
V111 FLINDERS PETRIE
Bibliography 465
Select Bibliography 465
The Books of Flinders Petrie 466
Obituaries and Appreciations 469
Glossary of Arabic and Technical Words 470
Appendix A: The Chronology of Ancient Egyptian
History 471
Appendix B: Sites of Work done by Flinders Petrie,
or under his Supervision 472
Maps 473
Appendix C: U.c.L. Galton Papers 152/4 476
Index 479
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Plates following page 58
I William Petrie (1821-1908) about the time of his marriage
2 Captain Matthew Flinders R.N., explorer and cartographer (1774-1814).
From a miniature
3 Anne Petrie with her son Flinders (Willie) aged eight
4 Ann, widow of Matthew Flinders, with her daughter Anne and her
step-sister Isabella Tyler. About 1830. (Watercolour in possession of the
family)
5 William Matthew Flinders Petrie, about twelve years old, c. 1865
6 The view from the tomb, looking east over the inundation flood in October
1881
7 Flinders Petrie at Giza in 1880, outside the rock-tomb in which he lived for
two winters
8 Reginald Stuart Poole (18]2-95). Keeper of Coins and Medals in the British
Museum 1870-93 (Courtesy oft he Trustees of the British !'Iluseum)
9 Miss Amelia Edwards (1831-92)
10 The dhahabiya in which Petrie and the Amoses explored the eastern Delta
II After the great rainstorm, Tanis, May 1884
12 Brother and sister: children in Petrie's workforce at Tanis
13 Some of the contents of the cellar of the house of Asha-Ikhet ("Bak-akhiu")
in Tanis (Courtesy oft he British Museum)
14 Early experiments in archaeological photography: the "Carian" figurine
that led Petrie to the site ofNaucratis. He has attempted, by using a mirror,
to show both the back and the front.
15 Foundation deposit from the temple of Ptolemy II at Naucratis
16 Market scene
17 The limestone quarries at Tura
18 Francis Galton
19 Flinders Petrie, c. 1886
20 The Valley of the Tombs of the Kings as it was in 1886