Education
He studied under Julius Oppert in Paris, and from 1895, was associated with duties performed at the Louvre, where in 1908, he was appointed assistant curator of the Oriental Antiquities department.
anthropologist archaeologist historian mathematician
He studied under Julius Oppert in Paris, and from 1895, was associated with duties performed at the Louvre, where in 1908, he was appointed assistant curator of the Oriental Antiquities department.
He played a major role in the deciphering of Sumerian and Akkadian languages. On behalf of the museum, he conducted excavations at Arslan Tash (1927) and at Til Barsip (1929–1931). He was a leading expert on Babylonian cuneiform texts, and worked on a theory concerning the origins of cuneiform writing, publishing the treatise Recherches sur l"origine de l"écriture cunéiforme (1898) as a result.
Along with Georges Dossin, he founded the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale, an association of orientalists, which hosts international events.
Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. Société Asiatique]
He was a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.