Editing Alfred Charles Auguste Foucher (section)

== Travels ==
He made his first trip to northeastern [[India]] in 1895. In 1910 he examined the [[Great Zimbabwe]] and the [[Khami]] ruins, proclaiming both were made by [[Phoenicians]]. His views on ruins in southern Africa are not considered accurate by modern scholars. In 1922 he was asked by the governments of France and [[Afghanistan]] to organize an [[archaeology|archeological]] co-operative which became the ''[[French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan]] (DAFA)''.

[[Image:Gandhara Buddha (tnm).jpeg|thumb|160px|One of the first representations of the Buddha, [[Gandhara]], in pure Hellenistic style and technique. Foucher considers such statues as Greek work of the 1st century BCE.]] 
Foucher's most famous work was ''L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique du Gandhara'' in which he described how [[Buddhist]] [[art]] prior to [[Hellenistic civilization|Pan-Hellenism]] was principally [[aniconic]], representing the Buddha by depicting elements of the Buddha's life instead of depicting the Buddha himself. Foucher argued that the first sculpted images of the Buddha were heavily influenced by Greek artists. He coined the term "[[Greco-Buddhist art]]".

Foucher especially considered Hellenistic free-standing Buddhas as "the most beautiful, and probably the most ancient of the Buddhas", assigning them to the 1st century BCE, and making them the starting point of the anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha ("The Buddhist art of Gandhara", Marshall, p101).

Following the mid-20th century discovery of Roman trading posts in Southern India, Foucher's argument was revised in favour of [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] influence, as opposed to Greek.

New archeological discoveries in [[Central Asia]] however (such as the [[Hellenistic]] city of [[Ai-Khanoum]] and the excavation of [[Sirkap]] in modern [[Pakistan]]), have been pointing to rich [[Greco-Bactrian]] and [[Indo-Greek]] civilizations in these areas, reviving the Hellenistic thesis. Nonetheless, his central [[thesis]] that the Buddha was of [[classics|Classical]] origin has become established. For a compelling counter-argument to Foucher's essay, see [[Ananda K. Coomaraswamy]], "The Origin of the Buddha Image".