Prof. Dr. Ofer Bar-Yosef

Ofer Bar-Yosef was an Israeli archaeologist and Mac Curdy Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. In his early days, he was Professor of Prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, before moving to the USA in 1980 for a long career at Harvard University. He was a member of several organizations, among them the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

During his long and rich scientific life in the field, he excavated major prehistoric Levantine sites including ‘Ubeidiya (Lower Palaeolithic), the caves of Qafzeh, Kebara and Hayonim (Middle and Upper Palaeolithic), Neolithic sites such as Netiv Hagdud and Nahal Hemar Cave, as well as Palaeolithic sites in the Republic of Georgia and Neolithic sites in Turkey and China. He was interested, among others, in the migration of humans out of Africa, in the evolution of Neanderthals and Modern Humans as well as in the Neolithic Revolution and the origins of agriculture.

He published major scientific books and numerous articles covering over 50 years of archaeological research on prehistoric human ecology in the Near East…Among those, to cite a few:

• Bar-Yosef, O., and B. Vandermeersch. 1991. Le squelette moustérien de Kebara 2, Cahiers de Paléoanthropologie. Paris: éditions du CNRS.
• Bar-Yosef, O., and R.S. Kra 1994. Late Quaternary Chronology and Paleoclimates of the Eastern Mediterranean. Tucson: Radiocarbon.
• Dibble, H., and O. Bar-Yosef (eds) 1995. The Definition and Interpretation of Levallois Technology, Monographs in World Archaeology 23. Prehistory Press : Madison.
• Bar-Yosef, O., and D. Pilbeam (eds) 2000. The Geography of Neandertals and Modern Humans in Europe and the Greater Mediterranean. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
• Bar-Yosef, O., and L. Meignen.(eds). 2007. Kebara Cave, Mt Carmel, Israel: The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archaeology, Part I. Cambridge US: American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 49, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.
• Enzel, Y., and O. Bar-Yosef. (eds) 2017. Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, climate change, and humans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Meignen, L., and O. Bar-Yosef (eds) 2019. Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel. The Middle and Upper Paleolithic Archaeology. Part II. Cambridge (US): American School of Prehistoric Research Bulletin 51, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.