Laurent Rabut, a painter and teacher of drawing in Chambéry, was a correspondent of the Académie impériale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Savoie. He was very interested in historical remains in his region, and in particular in lakeside pile dwellings. He joined the Commission de Topographie des Gaules (CTG) in January 1866. His publications, considered to be of great scientific value, meant that he benefited from funding from the CTG for his excavations around the Bourget lake.