Olivier Rayet, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Olivier Rayet

Scholar of Greek art. His

Date of Birth: 23-Sep-1847

Place of Birth: Saint-Médard, Occitania, France

Date of Death: 19-Feb-1887

Profession: art historian, archaeologist, philologist, linguist

Nationality: France

Zodiac Sign: Libra

Olivier Rayet (23 September 1847, Le Cairou – 19 February 1887, Paris) was a French archaeologist. From 1866 he studied geography and ancient history at the École normale supérieure in Paris, where he was a pupil of Ernest Desjardins, his future father-in-law.
In 1869 he obtained his agrégation in history and became a member of the French School at Athens.
From 1876 he taught classes in epigraphy and Greek archaeology at the École pratique des hautes études, and three years later, began teaching courses in ancient art at the Collège de France, succeeding Paul Foucart, a professor of epigraphy, who had recently been named director of the French School at Athens.
In 1884 he succeeded François Lenormant as chair of archaeology at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. In 1873 he directed excavations in Miletus and Didyma that were financed by Gustave and Edmond de Rothschild.
During the 1870s, he enriched the Louvre with some of the finest early examples of Tanagra figurines.