Research Fields

• Archaeology
• Art
• Religions of the pre-Islamic Iran
• Central Asia
• Zoroastrianism (with a particular focus on religious iconography)
• Culture of the Eurasian nomads
• Sogdian civilization and the "Silk Roads"

About

Michael Shenkar (PhD, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem) is an Associate Professor of Pre-Islamic Iranian studies at the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Since 2014, he has been directing (together with Sharof Kurbanov of the Tajik Academy of Sciences) the excavations of the Sogdian site Sanjar-Shah in northern Tajikistan.

 

Selected Publications

Shenkar, M. (2014), Intangible Spirits and Graven Images. Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World, Boston—Leiden: Brill.

Shenkar, M. (2014), “The Epic of Farāmarz in the Panjikent Paintings”, Bulletin of the Asia Institute 24, pp. 67-85.

Shenkar, M. (2015), “Rethinking Sasanian Iconoclasm”, Journal of the American Oriental Society 135.3, pp. 471-498.

Shenkar, M. (2017), “The Great Iranian Divide: Between Aniconic West and Anthropomorphic East”, Religion 47/3, pp. 378-398.

Shenkar, M. (2020), “The Origin of the Sogdian Civic Communities (nāf)”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 63.3, pp. 357-388.

 

Selected Awards

Alon Fellowship for Outstanding Young Faculty by the Israeli Council for Higher Education

Prix Ghirshman of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, Institut de France, Paris

Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship at the German Archaeological Institute, Berlin

Max Schlomiuk Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

 

Teaching

Introduction to Zoroastrianism (38272).

Civilizations and Cultures in Pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia (38257). 

Kingship and Royal Court in Pre-Islamic Iran (38477).

Panjikent – Life and Death of a Sogdian City (5th-8th centuries CE) (38131).

Public Space and Shaping of Memory in Sasanian Iran (38132).

The Sasanian Empire in Light of its Material Culture (38273).

Masters of the “Silk Road” – the Rise and Fall of the Sogdian Culture (38476).

The Arab Conquest of Iran and Central Asia (38218).

Cultural Contacts Along the “Silk Road”: From China to Sogdiana (4th-8th centuries CE) (38962).

Eurasian Nomads and their Culture in the Pre-Islamic Period (38874).

Eurasian Nomads and their Culture in World History (38717), together with Prof. Michal Biran.

The Sogdian Civilization on the “Silk Roads” (first millennium CE) (38802).