Sanjyot Mehendale

Dr. Sanjyot Mehendale is an archaeologist specializing in the trade and cultural exchange networks of Eurasia, commonly known as the Silk Roads. She received her Doctorandus degree in Indo-Iranian art and archaeology from the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden in The Netherlands. In 1992, she joined the Near Eastern Studies Department’s doctoral program at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on early Common Era central Asia and the ancient site of Begram, Afghanistan. After completing her dissertation in 1997, she began teaching central Asia and Silk Roads courses as a Lecturer in Near Eastern Studies (now Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures).

In 1999, she co-developed a joint project with the Uzbek Institute of Archaeology in Samarkand to excavate sites in southern Sogdiana. The Uzbek-Berkeley Archaeological Mission’s work received support from the Stahl Fund and the Mellon Foundation. Her research and writing projects have been supported by a fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, among others. Since 1996, she has conducted archaeological research in Sri Lanka, including the excavation of a shipwreck off the southern coast of the island, investigating first-millennium CE maritime connections across the Indian Ocean. Her most recent fieldwork project, starting in summer 2024, is a partnership with Michael Frachetti (Washington University, St. Louis) and Farhad Maksudov (Uzbek Academy of Sciences) to excavate the medieval urban site of Tugunbulak in the high mountain region of Uzbekistan.

Her recent publications include, with Franck Billé and James Lankton, the co-edited volume The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities (University of Amsterdam Press, 2022) and “A Moveable Court: Itinerant Kingship, Royal Temples, and Buddhist Monasteries during the Kuṣāṇa Era,” in Transcending Boundaries: Premodern Cultural Transactions Across Asia - Osmund Bopearachchi Festschrift (Delhi: Primus Books, 2024).

In 2007, she was a consultant for the National Geographic Society helping to structure the Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul exhibition and contributing to the accompanying catalog. She currently serves as the Principal Investigator on a National Endowment for the Humanities Planning Grant to develop an exhibition on the Silk Road site of Dunhuang in collaboration with the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Dunhuang Academy in China, and the Dunhuang Foundation in the US.

For many decades, Dr. Mehendale has worked to develop Silk Road studies at UC Berkeley, starting with a Townsend Center for the Humanities-sponsored “Silk Road Working Group” (with Dr. Bruce Williams) and, more recently, the “Silk Road Initiative” housed at the university’s Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, for which she serves as Vice Chair. Her institutional collaborations include outreach and academic programs developed with Cal Performances in conjunction with residencies by the Silk Road Ensemble (founded by cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and, as a member of the Society for Asian Art’s Advisory Board, at San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum. These efforts to foster Silk Road studies at UC Berkeley culminated in the 2017 founding of the P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for Silk Road Studies at UC Berkeley, where she was appointed the inaugural Chair.

Appointments:
Lecturer, Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
Chair, P.Y. and Kinmay W. Tang Center for Silk Road Studies
Vice Chair, Numata Center for Buddhist Studies