Yakov A. Sher (1931–2019): Milestones of Academic Career

Professor Yakov A. Sher (1931–2019), Doctor of History, was a world-famous specialist in prehistoric art. This research relied on the archives of the Institute for Material Culture History, the State Hermitage Museum, and the Kemerovo State University to trace Professor Sher’s career path. Yakov Sher did his postgraduate research at the Institute for Material Culture History, USSR Academy of Sciences. Upon defending his PhD thesis, he obtained a position as Head of Laboratory of Archaeological Technology at the Institute of Archaeology, Leningrad. When he was not re-elected, Yakov Sher had to turn to school pedagogy but did not give up his research. With I. S. Kamenetskiy and B. I. Marshak, he co-authored a profound Analysis of Archaeological Sources (1975). Professor Sher dedicated ten years of his academic career to the Department of Museum Informatics at the State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad. For more than half a century, he worked at the Department of Archaeology of the Kemerovo State University, where he founded a scientific school of prehistoric art studies.