Flinders Petrie and the Curation of Heads

Abstract

William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853–1942) was a legendary figure in the histories of archaeology and anthropology, recognised for his discipline-building efforts and his contributions to various intellectual paradigms including eugenics and anthropometry. Of lesser renown, however, is the donation of his own head to the collections of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in London. This paper sets that donation in the context of Petrie’s lifelong investment in curating other people’s heads and in building representative museological collections for teaching and research. The authors situate the curation of Petrie’s head in the genealogy of his own scholarship and curatorial practice and, in so doing, initiate a conversation about the power of human remains to generate debate, critical reflection and reconsiderations of both historiography and future museum practice.