"The man who knows and dwells in history adds a new dimension to his existence…He lives in all time; the ages are his, all live alike to him." – Flinders Petrie
Until about 200 years ago, the writing of the ancient Egyptians was an enigma to the world, but that changed when an ancient Egyptian monument known today as the Rosetta Stone was discovered (or rediscovered serendipitously) by French soldiers in Egypt in 1799. Now one of the most famous monuments in the world, the Rosetta Stone is a black granite stele that was inscribed with texts in Greek and two different scripts of the ancient Egyptian language: demotic and hieroglyphs. Stelae like the Rosetta Stone were monuments that ancient Egyptian kings inscribed texts on, usually to proclaim a battle victory or a legal decree.
As more individuals headed for Egypt and made more groundbreaking discoveries, the interest in Egypt heightened, as did knowledge about ancient history, despite the fact it happened so long ago and covered an immense span of time. William Mathew Flinders Petrie, more commonly known as Flinders Petrie, was among the second wave of Egyptologists who saw the need to modernize the study of ancient Egypt by introducing scientific techniques from other fields of study. During his life and career, Petrie discovered many tombs, developed several influential theories, and changed the way in which modern archaeology is practiced.
