Frantz Grenet

Born 1952, Frantz Grenet studied at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris). He was Deputy-director of DAFA (Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan) from 1977-81, Research fellow at the CNRS, Paris from 1981-2013 (director of research since 2005) and Professor at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne) since 1999, where he was chair of Religions of the ancient Iranian world. Since 2013, he has been a Professor at the Collège de France, and chair of History and cultures of pre-Islamic Central Asia.

Prof. Grenet is President of SEECHAC (European Society for the Study of Cultures of the Himalaya and Central Asia). Member of the board of the Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum. Corresponding member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres (Paris).

Since 1989, he has been the director of the French-Uzbek Archaeological Mission in Sogdiana (MAFOUZ-Sogdiane), excavating at Samarkand and other sites in Uzbekistan.

Main fields of research : history and archaeology of Central Asia ; history of Zoroastrianism.

Main publications : Les pratiques funéraires dans l’Asie centrale sédentaire de la conquête grecque à l’islamisation (Paris, 1984) ; A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 3 (in collaboration with Mary Boyce), Leiden-Köln, 1991 ; vol. 4 (in collaboration with Mary Boyce and Albert de Jong), in preparation ; La geste d’Ardashir fils de Pâbag, Die, 2003.

https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr/chaire/frantz-grenet-histoire-et-cultures-de-asie-centrale-preislamique-chaire-statutaire