Born on November 13 1940.
Education and professional career
- 1960 : Certificate of Indian Studies, Lyon
- 1961-1963 : Diplôme d'études supérieures : Les emplois adnominaux du génitif en latin
- Degree in Classics, Lyon-Paris
- 1962-1965 : École normale supérieure student
- 1965 : Agrégé de grammaire
- 1975 : History thesis : Les documents des salles 134 et 160 du palais de Mari, Université de Paris-I
- 1965-1967 : Assistant at Lyon University : Greek and Latin grammar and philology ; Indian studies
- 1968-1970 : Boarder at the Fondation Thiers
- 1970-1975 : Assistant at the University of Paris-I : Ancient Near Eastern history
- 1976-1981 : Research associate, then research fellow at CNRS
- 1982 : Director of Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences Historiques et Philologiques, (Chair of Sumerian and Akkadian Antiquities)
- 1982-1994 : Director of UPR 193 at CNRS, Mari and the Near East cuneiform
- 1982 : Publishing director of the Royal Archives of Mari
- 1982 : Co-director of the journal MARI, Annales de Recherches Interdisciplinaires
- 1983 : Member of the editorial board of the Revue d'assyriologie et d'archéologie orientale
- 1983-1988 : Member of the CNRS National Committee (section 44)
- 1987-1997 : Director of the French archaeological mission at Habour (Tell Mohammed Diyab) ; nine excavation campaigns
- 1991 : Member of the scientific committee of IFAPO (Institut français d'archéologie du Proche-Orient)
- 1996 : Director of EAD 2244, Babylonian Dictionary of Paris, at the EPHE
- 1996 : Co-director of the Amurru series
- 1999-2011 : Professor of Assyriology at the Collège de France
Awards and distinctions
- 1990 : Saintour Prize of the Collège de France
- Officier des Palmes académiques