This is not an article about Petrie but it is a short biography (excerpt below) with links to relevant articles on Heritage Key about Petrie and about the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology in London, UK.
Sir William Flinders Petrie was one of the most revered Egyptologists in history, and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology. He already had exploration in his blood before his birth in 1853; his grandfather was one of the first men to chart Australia. Whilst a child, his mother introduced him to Hebrew, Latin and Greek - which helped nurture his later obsession with the ancient past. As a young man Petrie developed a taste for geometry and engineering, spurred on by his industrial engineer father.
Later on he would allude the building of Stonehenge with that of the Great Pyramids at Giza, and speculated that pi must have been used in their development. His 1883 book The Pyramids and Temples of Giza still remains a key text on the subject of the structures' construction and measurement. He then carried on his work at Tanis, Sehel and Fayoum - by which time he was already famous for discovering a great number of steles and pottery.
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