Petrie was named after his maternal grandfather, Matthew Flinders, a British navigator, pioneer hydrographer, and explorer of Australia and Tasmania. Petrie was educated privately, developing archaeological and ethnological interests early, particularly in ancient weights and measures and Egyptology.

At 24, Petrie wrote Inductive Metrology; or, The Recovery of Ancient Measures from the Monuments, a work representing a new approach to archaeological study. Fieldwork at various locations in Britain, including Stonehenge, enabled him to determine by mathematical computations the unit of measurement for the monument's construction. His Stonehenge: Plans, Description, and Theories was published in 1880, and in that same year, he began the survey and excavation of the Great Pyramid at Giza, which initiated his four decades of exploration in the Middle East.

During the 1884 excavation of the Temple of Tanis, Petrie discovered fragments of a colossal statue of Ramses II. In 1885 and 1886, at Naukratis and Daphne in the Nile River delta, he uncovered painted pottery by which he proved that those sites had been trading colonies for the ancient Greeks. It was this discovery that caused him to believe that history could be reconstructed by a comparison of potsherds (pottery fragments) at various levels of excavation.

Petrie first applied his principle of sequence dating in Palestine, at the site of Tel Ḥasi, south of Jerusalem. In 1890, in only six weeks, the untiring excavator found a series of occupations for which he could supply approximate habitation dates. Petrie's work at the hill site marked the second stratigraphic study in archaeological history; the first was carried out at Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. The excavations of these two men marked the beginning of examining successive levels of a site rather than the previously practised method of chaotic digging, which had produced only a jumble of unrelated artefacts.

Petrie made other important discoveries in the Al-Fayyūm region of Egypt. At Gurob, he found numerous papyri and Aegean pottery that substantiated dates of ancient Greek civilizations, including the Mycenaean. At the Pyramid of Hawara, he searched through the tomb of Pharaoh Amenemhet III to discover how grave robbers could have found the tomb's opening and made their way through the labyrinth surrounding the two sarcophagi that they emptied. He concluded that they must have been given the master plan by an informer.

In 1892, Petrie was made Edwards professor of Egyptology at University College London, and he served in the position until 1933 when he became professor emeritus. In 1894 he founded the Egyptian Research Account, which in 1905 became the British School of Archaeology.

In 1904, Petrie published Methods and Aims in Archaeology, the definitive work of his time, in which he lucidly defined the goals and methodology of his profession along with the more practical aspects of archaeology – such as details of excavation, including the use of cameras in the field. With uncommon insight, he noted that research results depended on the archaeologist's personality, who, in addition to possessing broad knowledge, had to have an insatiable curiosity. His abundance of that characteristic was never questioned.

Inscriptions that Petrie found on the Sinai Peninsula represented an intermediate stage (not later than 1500 BCE) of written communication between Egyptian hieroglyphics and the Semitic alphabet. Although he wrote The Formation of the Alphabet (1912), language was not Petrie's strong point. He depended on a sixth sense for the free translation of inscriptions and establishing dates through studying the forms of hieroglyphs.

(A)

Bath
Bath lies astride the River Avon in a natural arena of steep hills. It was built of local limestone and is one of the most elegant and architecturally distinguished British cities. Its 16th-century abbey church of St. Peter and St. Paul is late Perpendicular Gothic and is noted for its windows, but the wealth of classical Georgian buildings mounting the steep valley sides gives Bath its distinction. The city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. Medieval Bath, incorporated by charter in 1189, shared in the west-of-England wool trade and later in the cloth trade, but the baths, although still used by royalty, were poorly maintained. When portions of the Roman baths were rediscovered in 1755, Bath had already been revived as a spa. In its heyday as a fashionable resort, the Elizabethan town was rebuilt and extended in Palladian style.

(B)

Bristol
The medieval town of Bristol was incorporated in 1155. The harbour was improved in 1247 by diverting the River Frome to the west and building a stone bridge at the point of its former confluence with the River Avon. During the reign of Edward III (1327–77) Bristol imported raw wool from Ireland and manufactured woollen cloth, which it sold to Spain and Portugal in return for sherry and port wine. By the 16th century Bristol had become a major port, a manufacturing town, and a distribution centre for both overseas and inland trade. During the later 17th and the 18th centuries Bristol prospered as a processing centre for sugar and tobacco imported from Britain's colonies in the Americas, to which it supplied textiles, pottery, glass, and other manufactured goods. Importing Jamaican sugar and cacao from West Africa led to the creation of the "sugar houses" of Bristol and to chocolate manufacture.

(C)

Leeds
Leeds originated as an Anglo-Saxon township on the north bank of the River Aire. It grew as a local market centre and was incorporated in 1626. By then the town was a cloth-finishing centre for a wide area where domestic weaving, introduced by 14th-century Flemish weavers, was pursued. By the 16th century, Leeds was able to challenge the supremacy of York and Beverley in the woollen-manufacturing trade. With the Industrial Revolution and development of the local coalfield, the woollen industry was rapidly surpassed in importance by engineering, and for a time pottery and linen manufacture were also important. The city is home to a number of historic buildings. The Leeds Corn Exchange (1864) was designed by Cuthbert Brodrick – as was Leeds Town Hall (1858), envisioned as a municipal palace and opened by Queen Victoria but now principally a concert and performance venue.

(D)

Newcastle
The settlement dates from the Roman period, when a fort was built on a site close to the present Tyne Bridge. The district and its name derive from a Norman castle built in 1080 by Robert II, the eldest son of William I the Conqueror. In the 12th century, the town became important as a fortress settlement because of its key position in the frontier defences guarding the east coast route from Scotland. The protection afforded by the fortress attracted religious and commercial bodies, and the resulting town rapidly expanded. The wool trade was especially important, and, in 1353 Newcastle became a staple (wool-manufacturing) town. By 1800, Newcastle had become an important industrial and financial centre (the first banking houses dating from 1755), with expanding ironworking and glassmaking industries. The River Tyne became a major focus for shipbuilding, and Newcastle's shipyards were long among the largest ship-repairing centres in the world. Although the latter activity had declined by the late 20th century, the associated marine and heavy engineering industries remain important to Newcastle, which plays an important role in servicing Britain's offshore oil and gas fields.