Born in Paris, March 4 1898. Bordelais on his father's side, Angevin on his mother's. Died October 11 1986.

Education and professional career

After studying at Collège de Neufchâteau, Lycées de Troyes and Tarbes, and Lycée Louis-le-Grand, he entered the École Normale Supérieure in 1916.

Mobilized shortly afterwards, he took part in the fighting of 1917 and 1918. After passing the agrégation des Lettres and a few months teaching at the Lycée de Beauvais, he was appointed lecturer at Warsaw University in 1921.

• 1924 : Doctoral scholarship, he defended his thesis on " Le Festin d'Immortalité " in Indo-European mythologies
• 1925-1931 : Professor of the History of Religions at Istanbul University
• 1931-1933 : Lecturer at the University of Upsal
• Lecturer, École Pratique des Hautes Études,^Ve section
• 1935-1968 : Director of Studies (EPHE),^Ve section, for the comparative study of Indo-European religions
• 1949-1968 : Elected to the Chair of Indo-European Civilization at the Collège de France
• 1968-1971 : Spent three years in the United States (Princeton, Chicago, Los Angeles)

In addition, from 1928 to 1930, and then continuously from 1954 onwards, he devoted himself to saving Ubykh, the residual language of the North-West Caucasus, which is now only spoken by a few old men in two Anatolian villages, before its complete disappearance.

Awards and honors

• Honorary doctorate from the Universities of Upsal (1955), Istanbul (1964), Berne (1969) and Liège (1979)
• 1958 : Associate member of the Académie Royale de Belgique
• 1968 : Corresponding member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences
• 1970 : Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres de Paris
• 1974 : Honorary Member of The Royal Irish Academy, Section of Polite Literature and Antiquities
• 1974 : Honorary Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
• 1978 : Member of the Académie Française
• Officer of the Légion d'Honneur
• Croix de Guerre 1914-1918
• Commandeur des Palmes Académiques