Abstract
Hammu-rabi of Babylon commemorated in the name of his 35th year of reign the ruin of Mari, whose conquest he had celebratedtwo years earlier. Paradoxically, this destruction was a stroke of luck for the historian : the collapse of the roof and the upper parts of the walls sealed the contents of the palace after it had been pillaged by the Babylonians. Thousands of cuneiform tablets remained on site, which were exhumed from February 5 1935, exactly 90 years ago. We'll draw a portrait of the Babylonian king responsible for the destruction, and of the archaeologist who discovered the ruins, André Parrot.
