Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) was a pioneer in the field of ‘modern’ archaeology. He introduced the stratigraphical approach in his Egyptian campaigns that underpins modern excavation techniques, explored scientific approaches to analysis and developed detailed typological studies of artefact classification and recording, which allowed for the stratigraphic dating of archaeological layers. He excavated and surveyed over 30 sites in Egypt, including Giza, Luxor, Amarna and Tell Nebesheh.
Sir Herbert Thompson studied Law at Cambridge but did not pursue this as a career, and then medicine at University College London where he met Flinders Petrie who encouraged him to study Egyptology. He specialised in Coptic and Demotic languages and became eminent in this field. He died in 1944.
W.E. Crum was an expert in Coptic language who graduated from Balliol College, Oxford and then studied Egyptology in Paris and Berlin. He spent much of his career cataloguing Coptic materials in major museum collections and published a six-volume Coptic Dictionary. He assisted Flinders Petrie in the teaching of ancient Egyptian and Coptic at University College London. He died in 1944.
