Louis Burkhalter was a French Archaeologist and former delegate of the

Société préhistorique française The Société préhistorique française is a society founded in 1904, recognized as being of public utility in 1910. It obtained the Grand Prix de l'Archéologie in 1982. Its main activities are the organization of scientific meetings and the pu ...

(French Prehistoric Society).Pervès, Maurice., La préhistoire de la Syrie et du Liban, Syria, 1946.
/ref> He was notable for his exploration and documentation of prehistoric sites in

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to Lebanon–Syria border, the north and east and Israel to Blue ...

and Syria. He made notable collections of

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French ''acheuléen'' after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated ...

and

Abbevillian Abbevillian (formerly also ''Chellean'') is a term for the oldest lithic industry found in Europe, dated to between roughly 600,000 and 400,000 years ago. The original artifacts were collected from road construction sites on the Somme river near ...

bifaces from around the valleys and coasts and compiled an early list of prehistoric sites published by the

National Museum of Beirut The National Museum of Beirut ( ar, متحف بيروت الوطنيّ, ''Matḥaf Bayrūt al-waṭanī'' or French: Musée national de Beyrouth) is the principal museum of archaeology in Lebanon. The collection begun after World War I, and the m ...

. He is also notable in some fringe circles for suggesting the existence of

giants A giant is a being of human appearance, sometimes of prodigious size and strength, common in folklore. Giant(s) or The Giant(s) may also refer to: Mythology and religion *Giants (Greek mythology) *Jötunn, a Germanic term often translated as 'gi ...

as a ''"scientific fact"'' in the Acheulean period when commenting on the gigantic lithic finds of Denis Saurat at Sasnych in Syria. Later review of his suggestion notes that large lithics found could have been used for stunning and

trap A trap is a mechanical device used to capture or restrain an animal for purposes such as hunting, pest control, or ecological research. Trap or TRAP may also refer to: Art and entertainment Films and television * ''Trap'' (2015 film), Fil ...

s and present no evidence for giant populations.Edeine, Bernard., Monuments mégalithiques détruits ou en voie de disparition dans le bac de Caux, Annales de Normandie, 1957.
/ref>

Bibliography

(Principal Publications) * Burkhalter, Louis., "Bibliographie préhistorique (à suivre)." in Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth. Tome VIII, 1946-1948. * Burkhalter, Louis., "Bibliographie préhistorique (suite et fin)" in Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth. Tome IX, 1949-1950.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkhalter, Louis French archaeologists