Claude Rapin
Claude Rapin (born 19??) is an archaeologist and specialist of Central Asia, with special attention to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. He is research director at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and director of the ("Franco-Uzbek Archaeological Mission of Sogdiana"). Career. Rapin studied archaeology, ancient history and Greek language at the University of Lausanne, where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Letters by writing a thesis on the royal treasury of the Hellenistic palace at Ai-Khanoum in Afghanistan, under the direction of . After a period of archaeological excavations in Europe (Great Britain, Romania and  Switzerland), he began to concentrate his field activities on Central Asia, first in Afghanistan, then in Uzbekistan. He has participated in the excavations of Samarkand, and Derbent relating to activities of the Franco-Uzbek Archaeological Mission of Sogdiana. Since 1995, he has been a research fellow of the team at CNRS in Paris; and gave courses on Central Asian archaeology as a privat-docent at University of Lausanne.