Michael Shenkar is Associate Professor of Ancient Iranian and Central Asian Studies and Director of the Kliakhandler Programme in Central Asian Studies. His specialization lies in the study of the civilizations and cultures of the pre-Islamic Iranian world through their material remains and visual representations. His research interests include the archaeology, art, and religions of pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia, with particular attention to Zoroastrianism (especially religious iconography), the culture of the Eurasian nomads, the Sogdian civilization, and the Silk Roads. He is Co-Director of the excavations at the Sogdian site of Sanjar-Shah and Academic Head of the Kafyr-Kala excavation projects in Tajikistan. In addition, he serves as Visiting Professor in the Department of History of Samarkand Civilization at Samarkand State University, Uzbekistan, and Honorary Affiliate of the Oxford Nizami Ganjavi Centre, University of Oxford.
Courses taught:
The Arab Occupation of Iran and Central Asia; Civilizations and Cultures in pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia; Introduction to the Zoroastric Religion; Turks and Iranians along the Silk Roads of the 5th-8th Centuries; The Sassanid Empire as Reflected in Its Material Culture
Recent Publications:
2025 Kings of Cities and Rulers of the Steppes: Representations of Kingship in Pre-Islamic Central Asia. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
2025 (with Sharof Kurbanov and Abdurahmon Pulotov) “A Unique Scene of Fire Worship from the Late Sogdian Palace at Sanjar-Shah”. Antiquity. https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2025.10180.
2024 (with Carli Peters; Kristine K. Richter; Shevan Wilkin; Sören Stark; Basira Mir-Makhamad; Ricardo Fernandes; Farhad Maksudov; Mirzaakhmedov Sirojidin; Rahmonov Husniddin; Stefanie Schirmer; Kseniia Ashastina; Alisher Begmatov; Michael Frachetti; Sharof Kurbanov; Taylor Hermes; Fiona Kidd; Andrey Omelchenko; Barbara Huber; Nicole Boivin; Shujing Wang; Pavel Lurje; Madelynn von Baeyer; Rita Dal Martello; and Robert N. Spengler) “Archaeological and Molecular Evidence for Ancient Chickens in Central Asia”. Nature Communications 15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2.
2024 (with Mir-Makhamad, Basira, Pavel Lurje, Vikentiy Parshuto, Abdurakhmon Pulatov, Firuz Aminov, Muminkhon Saidov, Nikita Semenov, Sharof Kurbanov, Sirojidin Mirzaakhmedov, Husniddin Rahmonov, Rita Dal Martello, and Robert N. Spengler) “Agriculture Along the Upper Part of the Middle Zarafshan River During the First Millennium AD: A Multi-Site Archaeobotanical Analysis”, PLoS ONE 19(3): e0297896. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0297896.
2023 “Empires Without Historiography: History, Epos and Memory in Ancient Iran”. Historia: Journal of the Historical Society of Israel 50: 95-111 (in Hebrew).
2023 (with Michal Biran, Kubatbek Tabaldiev, Kunbolot Akmatov and Valery Kolchenko) “The Kök-Tash Underground Mausoleum in North-Eastern Kyrgyzstan: The First-Ever Identified Qara Khitai Elite Tomb?” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186322000621
2022 “The So-Called Fravašis and the Heaven and Hell Paintings, and the Cult of Nana in Panjikent”. Iran: Journal of the British Institute of Persian Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2022.2037101.
2025 (with Kurbanov, Sh., Pulotov, A. and Assomiddinzoda, S.) “Archaeological Excavations of the Sanjar-Shah Palace in 2024”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 46: 52-65 (in Russian).
2025 (with Kurbanov, Sh., Pulotov, A., Parshuto, V. and Yusufzoda, M.) “Archaeological Excavations of the Sanjar-Shah Palace in 2022-23”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 46: 262-276 (in Russian).
2025 (with Kurbanov, Sh., Saifulloev, N., Parshuto, V. Everest-Phillips, E., Petrishcheva, D., Akulov, A., Decruyenaere, D. and Mahmudov, N.) “Research at the Kafyrkala Settlement in the Vakhsh Valley in 2024”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 46: 65-93 (in Russian).
2025 (with Kurbanov Sh., Saifulloev N., Parshuto V., Everest-Phillips E., Bogatov D., Shamrov I. and Volokhovsky G.) “Archaeological Surveys at the Lagman Site in the Vakhsh Valley in 2024”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 46: 93-101 (in Russian).
2025 “Sogdians in Their Homeland”. In The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, edited by D. Ludden. New York: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.013.51
2024 “The ‘Eternal Fire’, Achaemenid Zoroastrianism and the Origin of the Fire Temples”. In Yahwism under the Achaemenid Empire, edited by G. Barnea, and R. G. Kratz. Professor Shaul Shaked in Memoriam. Berlin: De Gruyter, 379-390.
2023 “New Discoveries in Central Asia and the Origin of the Fire Temples”. In Takht-i Sangin as an Example of the Synthesis of the Civilizations of East and West, edited by N. K. Udaydullo. Dushanbe: Tajik Academy of Sciences, 183-199.(in Russian).
2023 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2021”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 44: 135-152 (in Russian).
2023 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2020”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 44: 50-64 (in Russian).
2023 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2019”, Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 43: 188–209 (in Russian).
2023 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2018”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 43: 138–187 (in Russian).
2022 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Eastern Zaravshan Valley in the Early Islamic Period (8th-9th centuries): New Evidence from Sanjar-Shah Excavations (2016-2019)”. In Cultures in Contact Central Asia as Focus of Trade, Cultural Exchange and Knowledge Transmission, edited by C. Baumer and M. Novak. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 327-351.
2022 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2017”. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 42: 189-218 (in Russian).
2022 (with Sharof Kurbanov, Abdurahmon Pulotov and Firuz Aminov) “Archaeological Excavations of Sanjar-Shah in 2016”, Arkheologicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane 42: 163-189 (in Russian).
2022 “The Arab Conquest and the Collapse of the Sogdian Civilization”. In The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia in the First Millennium CE: From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Era, edited by in D. Tor and M. Inaba. Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 95-125.