Research Fields

• Early and middle Pleistocene archaeology,
• Levantine prehistory, eastern African prehistory,
• dispersals,
• the biocultural interface in human prehistory,
• evolution of social cognition,
• cultural transmission.

About

Erella Hovers is a professor of prehistoric archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a trained  lithic analyst and works on the earlier periods of human prehistory in eastern Africa and the Levant. Along with Dr.Tegenu Gossa, Prof. Hovers is currently co-directinga project at Melka Wakena (dated 1.6- 0.8 million years) on the Ethiopian highlands and at Hayonim Cave (western Galilee, Israel) focusing on the time period 350-200 thousand years ago. On-going off site activities include publications stemming from previous projects in collaboration with specialists and doctoral and post-doctoral students. 
 

Selected Publications

Hovers, E., Ilani, S., Bar-Yosef, O., Vandermeersch, B., 2003. “An early case of color symbolism: Ochre use by early modern humans in Qafzeh Cave.” Current Anthropology 44, 491-522.

Hovers, E., Belfer-Cohen, A., 2006. "Now you see it, now you don’t" – modern human behavior in the Middle Paleolithic, in: Hovers, E., Kuhn, S.L. (Eds.), Transitions Before The Transition: Evolution and Stability in the Middle Paleolithic and Middle Stone Age. Springer New York, pp. 295-304.

Hovers, E., 2009. The Lithic Assemblages of Qafzeh Cave. Oxford University Press, New York.

 Hovers, E., 2012. “Invention, re-invention, innovations: makings of the Oldowan” in: Elias, S. (Ed.), Origins of Human Creativity and Innovation. Elsevier, pp. 51-68.

 Belfer-Cohen, A., Hovers, E., 2020. “Prehistoric perspectives on ‘Others’ and ‘Strangers.’ Frontiers in Psychology 10, 3063.

Hovers, E., Gossa, T., Asrat, A., et al., 2021. “The expansion of the Acheulian to the Southeastern Ethiopian Highlands: Insights from the new early Pleistocene site-complex of Melka Wakena.” Quaternary Science Reviews 253, 106763.

 

Selected Awards

Research grants from the Israel Science Foundation, Thyssen foundation, National Geographic Society, Leakey Foundation, internal grants.

 

Teaching

Introduction to prehistoric archaeology;

The Lower and Middle Paleolithic in the Levant;

 On chimpanzees and humans;

The human settlement of Australia;

Processes of inventions and innovations in the prehistoric record;

Prehistoric perspectives on hunter-gatherers;

The emergence of modern humans; scientific writing