A pioneering Egyptologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) excavated over fifty sites and trained a generation of archaeologists. This single-volume reissue brings together two of his well-illustrated excavation reports. The first, originally published in 1897, describes work on six of the temples at Thebes, including the discovery of the famous Merneptah Stele, which contains the first non-biblical reference to Israel. A chapter on this inscription and others found in the temples is provided by the German scholar Wilhelm Spiegelberg (1870–1930). The second report, first published in 1896, discusses the archaeological work carried out at Naqada and Ballas by Petrie and James Edward Quibell (1867–1935), with a chapter by F. C. J. Spurrell (1842–1915) on the flint implements found at Naqada. Petrie wrote prolifically throughout his long career, and a great many of his other publications - for both specialists and non-specialists - are also reissued in this series.