Anna Belfer-Cohen

Anna Belfer-Cohen (Hebrew: אנה בלפר-כהן; born November 3, 1949) is an Israeli archaeologist and paleoanthropologist and Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Belfer-Cohen excavated and studied many important prehistoric sites in Israel including Hayonim and Kebara Caves and open-air sites such as Nahal Ein Gev I and Nahal Neqarot. She has also worked for many years in the Republic of Georgia, where she made important contributions to the study of the Paleolithic sequence of the Caucasus following her work at the cave sites of Dzoudzuana, Kotias and Satsrublia. She is a specialist in biological Anthropology, prehistoric art, lithic technology, the Upper Paleolithic and modern humans, the Natufian-Neolithic interface and the transition to village life.

Anna Belfer-Cohen was born in Rivne, Ukraine in 1949 to Halina (Ala) and Yehuda Belfer. The family immigrated to Israel in 1956. After completing high school in her home town Petah Tikva, she began studying toward her first degree in archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she also earned her MA (1981) and PhD (1988). Already in her undergraduate studies she participated in many archaeological expeditions in Israel, Cyprus and Sinai. Belfer-Cohen's PhD dissertation (supervised by Professor Ofer Bar-Yosef) was dedicated to the Natufian culture. She was appointed full professor at the Institute of Archaeology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in 2002. From 2005–2009, she served as the head of the university's Institute of Archaeology. From 2014 to 2018 she was the head of the Authority for Research Students (non-experimental Sciences).