The study of Ancient Egypt from the putative beginnings of Egyptian culture (c. 4500 BCE) to the Arab conquest (CE 641). Egyptology began with discovery of the Rosetta Stone (1799) and the publication of Description de l'Égypte (1809–28) by scholars accompanying Napoleon I. In 1880 Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (3 June 1853 – 28 July 1942), an English Egyptologist, brought controlled, scientifically recorded excavation to Egypt, revolutionizing archeology and pushing theories on Egyptian origins back to 4500 BCE. The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922 heightened public awareness. In 1975 the First International Congress of Egyptology convened in Cairo. Many sites remain that have been only slightly explored.

Egyptology