Louis Finot (archeologist)

Louis Finot (Bar-sur-Aube, 1864 - Toulon, 1935) was a French archeologist and researcher, specialising in the cultures of Southeast Asia. A former director of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, his contribution to the study of Khmer history, architecture and epigraphy is widely recognised.

Bachelor of law and in letters, Louis Finot is allowed at the École Nationale des Chartes in 1886. He leaves it two years later with the title of palaeographer. He works initially as trainee then as assistant librarian with the French National Library (1892) and undertakes studies of Sanskrit. In 1898, he is named director of the archaeological mission in Indochina, which will become in 1900 the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient(EFEO). His career is traced: it merges from now on with that of the incipient institution.

Publications

* 1896: Les lapidaires indiens, Paris, Émile Bouillon (Bibliothèque de l'École des hautes études), 280 p.

* 1916: Notes d'épigraphie indochinoise, Hanoi, Imprimerie d'Extrême-Orient, 439 p.

* 1917: « Recherches sur la littérature laotienne », BEFEO 17/5, p. 1-219.

* 1921. « Archéologie indochinoise » et « L'ethnographie indochinoise », BEFEO 21/1, p. 43-166 et 167-196.

* 1923: Les questions de Milinda, Milinda-Pañhha. Traduit du pali avec introduction et notes, Paris, Bossard (Les classiques de l'Orient, 8).

* 1925: « Lokesvara en Indochine », Paris, EFEO/Van Oest, (PEFEO 19), Études Asiatiques (1), p. 227-256, pl. 16-25.

* 1925: « Inscriptions d'Angkor », BEFEO 25/3-4, p. 297-407.

* 1926: (with Victor Goloubew et Henri Parmentier), Le temple d'Içvarapura (Banteay Srei, Cambodge), Paris, EFEO (Mémoires archéologiques, 1), 140 p., 72 pl.

* 1928: « Nouvelles inscriptions du Cambodge », BEFEO 28/1-2, p. 43-80, pl. 1-5.

* 1929-32: (with V. Goloubew et George Coedès), Le temple d'Angkor Vat, Paris, EFEO (Mémoires archéologiques, 2).