Anna Belfer-Cohen

Academic Titles

  • 1988 – Ph.D., Prehistoric Archaeology, Hebrew University
  • 2002-2018 – Full Professor, Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University
  • 2019 – Professor Emerita

Research Areas

  • Transitions and Beginnings: The Upper Palaeolithic and modern humans; the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic, and the transition to village life
  • Cognition in Prehistory
  • Prehistoric Art and its place in the evolution of human institutions
  • Lithic Technology
  • Physical Anthropology
  • Biological Anthropology

Professional services in the University 

  • Member, Senate  
  • Member, University Executive committee 
  • Head, Institute of Archaeology
  • Head, the Authority for Research Students (non-experimental Sciences) 
  • Head, Committee assessing correspondence between personnel and the activities of the HU libraries
  • Academic head (Co- with Prof. Patricia Smith), Anthropological collections, National Collections at the HU

Other Professional Services

  • Member, the scientific editorial board of Paléorient (Paris, France)  
  • Member, the scientific editorial board of J. of Anthropological Research (Chicago, USA)
  • Co-editor (one of three) of Journal of Eurasian Prehistory (Harvard, USA)
  • Member, Scientific editorial board of Mediterranean Arch. & Archaeometry (Crete and Greece) 
  • Member, Advisory Board of Neo-Lithics (Neolithic of Western Asia; Berlin, Germany)
  • Member, panel of ERC Granting Authority (Brussels)
  • Member, ICREA Panel (Barcelona)
  • Member, panel/head ISF (Israel Science Foundation) granting panel
  • Member, Wenner-Gren Foundation panel of reviewers (New York)
  • Member, Leakey Foundation panel of reviewers (New York)
  • Member, SNSF (Swiss National Science Foundation) granting panel (Berne)
  • Member, NCN (National Science Centre, Poland) granting panel (Krakow)
  • Secretary/Treasurer CARE Foundation 
  • Member, International Academy of Prehistory and Protohistory
  • Member, Israel Archaeological Council
  • Member, Steering Committee, Dan David Center for Human Evolution & Biohistory Research, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University

External Referent (granting)

  • BSF (Israel-USA)
  • CBRL (UK)
  • Earthwatch (USA)
  • ISF (Israel)
  • NSF (USA)
  • NGS (USA)
  • GIF (Israel-Germany)
  • Leakey Foundation (USA)
  • Tempelton Foundation (USA)

Referring for International Peer-Reviewed Journals

African Archaeological Review; American Antiquity; Antiquity; Archaeological and Anthropological Studies; Archaeological Research in Asia; Current Anthropology; Eurasian Prehistory; European Journal of Archaeology; Evolutionary Anthropology; Food and History Journal; Frontiers; Humanities and Social Sciences Communication; Intellectica; Israel Exploration Journal; Journal of Anthropological Archaeology; Journal of Archaeological Science; Journal of Archaeological Science Reports; Journal of Field Archaeology; Journal of Human Evolution; Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society; Journal of Method and Theory; Journal of Social Anthropology; Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry; Nature; Paléorient; Palestine Exploration Quarterly; Paleoanthropology; Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA); Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (UK); PlosOne; Psychology; Quaternary International; Quaternary Science Review; Scientific Reports; Science.

Recent Excavation Projects

  • Reconstruction of the Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic sequence of Georgia, the southern Caucasus (the caves Dzudzuana and Satsurblia and the rockshelter of Kotias Klde). This is an on-going international project, originally established jointly by the Late Prof. O. Bar-Yosef (Harvard, USA), Dr. Tengiz Meshviliani, Georgia State Museum and myself, on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, The HU. Currently, the other foreign co-director is Dr. Mareike Stahlschmidt, Vienne University (Austria).
  • Study of the lithic assemblages from the open-air site Nahal Ein Gev II – A Natufian Village in collaboration with Prof. Leore Grosman.
  • Comparative study of Natufian assemblages from different environments: Fazael VI, Salibiya XII (Jordan Valley), Nahal Besor IV (the Negev High mountains), Azgad Cave (the Arava region) in collaboration with Prof. Nigel A. Goring-Morris.
  • Study of bone tool assemblages from the Levantine and Caucasus Upper Palaeolithic, in collaboration with Dr. Jose-Miguel Tejero. 
  • The First cemeteries – The nature and meaning of Burial Practices in the Natufian Society. Cultural complexity on the eve of subsistence change. Studies of skeletal material as well as material finds from the burials at Hayonim and Hilazon Tachtit caves, in collaboration with Prof. Leore Grosman.  
  • Artistic manifestations from the open-air Natufian site Eynan (’Ain Mallaha) excavation project in collaboration with Dr. Fanny Bocquentin.

National and International Conferences, Workshops and other Meetings (as organizer only)

  • 2024, October 21-23, Barcelona, Spain, Conference “Social Interactions in Mediterranean prehistory”, SIMEP 2024, Organizer, Chairperson and Moderator of Session: “Circulation, Exchange and Trade” (19 lectures).  
  • 2024, November 4-8, Sanliurfa, Türkiye, “World Neolithic Congress”, Session R11: “The Neolithic of Southern Levant in its wider context” Co-organizer (A. Nigel Goring-Morris) (25 lectures).

Academic production

List of 20 last publicaions (past 7 years – a selection)

  • Bar-Yosef, O., A. Belfer-Cohen 2019. The Upper Paleolithic Industries of Kebara Cave. In: Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel: The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archaeology. Part II. L. Meignen, O. Bar-Yosef, eds., 309-404. Cambridge: American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 51. Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. 
    Belfer-Cohen, A., E. Hovers 2020 Prehistoric Perspectives on “Others” and “Strangers”. Frontiers in Psychology 10(3063).
  • Abadi, I., Bar-Yosef, O., A. Belfer-Cohen 2020. “Kebara V – A Contribution for the Study of the Middle-Upper Paleolithic Transition in the Levant” PaleoAnthropology 2020: 1-28.
  • Hovers, E., A. Belfer-Cohen 2020. Are Lithics and Fauna a Match Made in (Prehistoric) Heaven? Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 3: 108-125.
  • Goren-Inbar, N., A. Belfer-Cohen 2020. Reappraisal of hominin group size in the Lower Paleolithic: An introduction to the special issue. Journal of Human Evolution 144: 102821.
  • Goring-Morris, N., A. Belfer-Cohen 2020. Highlighting the PPNB in the Southern Levant. Neolithics 20: 3-22.
  • Goring-Morris, A. N., A. Belfer-Cohen 2020. Noisy beginnings: The Initial Upper Palaeolithic in Southwest Asia. Quaternary International 551: 40-46.
  • Belfer-Cohen, A., N. Goring-Morris 2020. From the Epipalaeolithic into the earliest Neolithic (PPNA) in the South Levant. Documenta Praehistorica XLVII: 36-52. 
  • Belfer-Cohen, A., A. N. Goring-Morris 2021. The Role of Networks in the Connectivity of the Levantine Epipaleolithic. Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society 51: 65–81.
  • Tejero, J.-Miguel, G. Bar-Oz, O. Bar-Yosef, T. Meshveliani, N. Jakeli, Z. Matskevich, R. Pinhasi, A. Belfer-Cohen 2021. “New insights into the Upper Palaeolithic of the Caucasus through the study of personal ornaments. Teeth and bones pendants from Satsurblia and Dzudzuana caves (Imereti, Georgia).” PLOS ONE 16 (11): e0258974. 
  • Tejero, J.-M, R. Rabinovich, R. Yeshurun, T. Abulafia, O. Bar-Yosef, O. Barzilai, M. Goder-Goldberger, I. Hershkovitz, R. Lavi, M. Shemer, O. Marder, A. Belfer-Cohen 2021. “Personal ornaments from Hayonim and Manot caves (Israel) hint at symbolic ties between the Levantine and the European Aurignacian.” Journal of Human Evolution 160: 102870.
  • Goren-Inbar, N., A. Belfer-Cohen, L. Grosman, G. Herzlinger, A. Agam 2022. “Kaizer Hill (Modi‘in), a pre-pottery neolithic a quarry site – the terraced slopes.” PLOS ONE 17 (3): e0265727.
  • Goring-Morris, N., A. Belfer-Cohen 2022. “‘Far and wide’: Social networking in the Early Neolithic of the Levant.” L’Anthropologie 126 (3): 103051.  
  • Grosman, L., A. Belfer-Cohen 2022. “Moving On: Natufian After-life Phases and Stages. Hilazon Tachtit Cave as a Case Study”. In: Dealing with the Dead: Studies on Burial Practices in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levant, edited by D. Ackerfeld and A. Gopher, Studies in Early Near Eastern Production, Subsistence and Environment, 23, 65-75. Berlin: Ex-oriente.
  • Grosman, L., A. Belfer-Cohen 2023. “Insights into Natufian Social Identity: A Case Study from the Graveyard of Hayonim Cave.” Cambridge Archaeological Journal 33 (2): 247-264.
  • Hovers, E., A. Belfer-Cohen 2023.  “A Pleistocene Record of Making Symbols.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Archaeology, edited by Thomas Wynn, Karenleigh A. Overmann and Frederick L. Coolidge. Oxford University Press  
  • Belfer-Cohen, A., N. Goring-Morris 2024. ““Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…” Ornaments in the Levantine Early Neolithic.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 54: 104442. 
  • Parow-Souchon, H., A. Belfer-Cohen. 2024. “The use of carinated items in the Levantine Aurignacian—Insights from layer D, Hayonim Cave, W. Galilee, Israel.” PLOS ONE 19 (7): e0301102.
  • Goring-Morris, A. N., A. Belfer-Cohen. 2024. “When environment meets culture in the arid margin of the Southern Levant.” Journal of Arid Environments 225: 105262.  
  • Longo, Laura, Mauro Veronese, Clarissa Cagnato, Giusi Sorrentino, Ana Tetruashvili, Anna Belfer-Cohen, Nino Jakeli, Tengiz Meshveliani, Moreno Meneghetti, Alfonso Zoleo, Antonio Marcomini, Gilberto Artioli, Elena Badetti, and Karen Hardy. 2025. “Direct evidence for processing Isatis tinctoria L., a non-nutritional plant, 32–34,000 years ago.” PLOS ONE 20 (5): e0321262.  
  • Goring-Morris, Nigel and Anna Belfer-Cohen. 2025. Salibiya XII and Fazael VI: Two Natufian Sites in the Lower Jordan Valley within Their Contexts Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, 8(2788-8819), 74–105 https://jjar.huji.ac.il   
  • Belfer-Cohen, Anna, and Leore Grosman. 2025. An Epipaleolithic Example of Symmetry for the “Mind’s Eye”, Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology, 8: 120–130. 
  • Belfer-Cohen, Anna, 2025. Comment on: Pondering Prehistory – Southern Levantine Homo populations’ dynamic during the Late Lower and Middle Paleolithic (400-50 ka): A personal perspective/ Israel Hershkovitz.  Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society – Mitekufat Haeven 55: 214-217.
  • Davin, L., Sindel, M., Yeshurun, R., Weinstein-Evron, M., Kaufman, D., Shklyar, B., Grosman, L., Belfer-Cohen, A., Khalaily, H., & Valla, F. R. (2026). Modeling identities among the first-sedentary communities: Emergence of clay personal ornaments in Epipaleolithic Southwest Asia. Science Advances, 12(12), eaea2158.
  • Tsahar, E., Bar-Oz, G., Izhaki, I., Avner, U., Barzilai, O., Belfer-Cohen, A., Edeltin, L., Goder-Goldberger, M., Hovers, E., Oron, M., Rosen, S. A., Shafir, R., Vardi, J., Weinstein-Evron, M., Weissbrod, L., Yeshurun, R., Wolkowski, U., Zaidner, Y., Horwitz, L. K., & Marom, N. (2026). Archaeological ostrich eggshell structure as a taxonomic and paleoenvironmental indicator. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 691, 113723. 
  • Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Krugman, T., Belfer-Cohen, A., Yeshurun, R., Grosman, L., Kaufman, D., Barshay, K., Piliponsky, M., Vardi, J., Abadi, I., & Weinstein-Evron, M. (2026). Natufian sickle blades (ca. 15,000–11,700 cal. BP) reveal cereal cultivation ca. 4.5 millennia before domestication. Scientific Reports 16, 25257.