Flinders Petrie. Portrait of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942), British archaeologist and Egyptologist. During 1875-80 he surveyed sites in Britain, including Stonehenge. From 1881 he began excavations in Egypt at the Great Pyra- mids of Giza. He then excavated the great temple at Tanis (1884), the city of Naucratis (1885) and sites in the Fayyum region (1888-90). Petrie discovered that there had been Greek colonies in Egypt. He also devised a way of dating finds by the design of the pottery found. In 1894 he founded the British School of Archaeology in Egypt. During 1927-38 he excavated the city of Lachish in Palestine (now Tell ed Duweir, Israel).