Louis Finot (archaeologist)

Louis Finot (1864 in Bar-sur-Aube - 1935 in Toulon) was a French archeologist and researcher, specialising in the cultures of Southeast Asia.

[1] A former director of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, his contribution to the study of Khmer history, architecture and epigraphy is widely recognised.

A bachelor of law and letters, Finot was admitted to the École Nationale des Chartes in 1886.

He worked initially as a trainee then as an assistant librarian with the French National Library and undertook studies of Sanskrit.

In 1898, he was named director of the archaeological mission in Indochina,[2] which would become in 1900 the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO).