Born in Paris and educated by Jesuits, Amour-Auguste-Louis-Joseph Berthelot, baron of Baye, described himself as “half-French, half-Russian” because of his keen interest in the archeology of the Caucasus, especially the Stone Age. He had originally gone to Russia in the 1880s at the behest of the Ministry of Education to study ancient ceramics. Presenting at several congresses, his most important excavation was the paleographic Ilskaia site in Ekaterinodar, near the Kuban River. His collections, which include numerous photographs, now reside in the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Musée Guimet, Musée du Louvre, Musée des Antiquités nationales de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, and the Musée de Sèvres. President of the Société des Antiquaires de France in 1906-1907, he was also member of the Légion d’honneur.