ABOUT ME
Guy Bar-Oz is a professor of archaeology at the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, University of Haifa. Bar-Oz has academic degrees in Biology (B.Sc.), Archaeology (B.A), Ecology (M.Sc.), and Zoology (Ph.D.) from Tel Aviv University. He also completed post-doctoral studies at Harvard University.
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His research team is a hub for a collaborative scientific network with a strong foundation in anthropological and biological research. His main research efforts deal with developing and applying novel methods for reconstructing the culture and environmental landscape of past societies in high resolution.
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In 2003 he founded the Laboratory of Archaeozoology at the University of Haifa. The lab is a hub for collaborative scientific networks with strong foundation in anthropological and biological research.
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In 2024 Bar-Oz was elected as a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
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Email Address: guybar@research.haifa.ac.il
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Google webpage: link
ORCID ID: link
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CRIS profile: link
POSITION
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Evolution of human hunting and subsistence behavior in prehistory
Near Eastern ZOOARCH: Development of complex economic systems in the Near East
Human impact on ancient environments and large scale hunting and trapping of animal resources
2018
Visiting Professor, University of Sokendai, Kanagawa, Japan
2014 -
Full Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel
The road to glocalization: Culture and people along the Negev Incense Route
2009-2014
Associate Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel
2003-2009
Senior Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, University of Haifa, Israel
Collapse and resilience of past societies in marginal environments
Bioarchaeology and cultural history of Mediterranean fruit trees in arid environments
Education
2002 Post-doc Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA
2001 Ph.D. Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
1996 M.Sc. Ecology, Department of Zoology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
1998 B.A. Department of Archaeology, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
1994 B.Sc. Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
Mentoring and Supervision of Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Fellows
2022: 5 PhD and 2 MA students, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, University of Haifa, Israel
2022: 4 postdoctoral researchers, School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures, University of Haifa, Israel
2005-2022: Supervision of 7 PhD and 19 MA students and 9 postdoctoral researchers; all have published their research.​
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Teaching Activities
2013- Technion - Israel Institute of Technology: Cultural History of Domesticated Animals (BA); Food, Culture and Human Evolution (BA).
2003- University of Haifa: Anthropological and biological oriented undergraduate (BA) and graduate courses and seminars (MA) in Near Eastern Bioarchaeology, Molecular Archaeology, Archaeological Science and Environmental Humanities.
Institutional Responsibilities
2020: University Promotion Committee; 2019: President Search Committee; 2018: Advisory Committee to Evaluate Faculty of Humanities; 2017-: Institute of Evolution Governors Committee; 2017-: Hecht Museum Governors Committee; 2016, 2019: Rector Search Committee; 2014-2017: Chair, Department of Archaeology; 2022-: Chair, Department of Cultural Heritage.
Major Research Grants as PI
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2023-2024 / Desert-sea connectivity: Arid-zone food security and climate change in Late Antiquity. Israel Institute for Advanced Studies.
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2022-2024 / European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grant. From near extinction to market distinction: Developing a methodology for the sustainable revival of heritage grapevine cultivars.
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2022-2025 / The Volkswagen Foundation. Revealing the Israeli Silk Road: Exploring networks of trade and exchange between East and West through textile finds from Nahal Omer, with a focus on silk and cotton.
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2021-2024 / Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). Heritage Gardens: Applied interdisciplinary survey and documentation of fruit tree heirloom cultivars in the western Negev and southern coastal plain.
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202-2023 / Israel Science Foundation. Revealing the lost Byzantine viticulture of the Negev Highlands.
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2020 / Haifa Center for Mediterranean History. Wine production and climate change in arid environments around the Roman Mediterranean.
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2015-2020 / European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant. Crisis on the margins of the Byzantine Empire: A bio-archaeological project on resilience and collapse during early Christian development of the Negev Desert.
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2014-2017 / Israel Science Foundation. Collapse and resilience in Byzantine towns of the Negev Desert: Bio-archaeological evidence from the city-dumps of Elusa and Nessana.
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2013 / Israel Science Foundation Conference Grant. Bones and identity: Reconstructing social and cultural landscapes in the archaeozoology of Southwest Asia.
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2012 / National Geographic Society. Pigeon-raising in the Roman and Byzantine periods in the Negev of the southern Levant.
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2010-2014 / Israel Science Foundation. Zooarchaeology of peoples and foods: analyzing the diversity of ethnicities, societies and environments of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the southern Levant.
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2008. National Geographic Society. The Negev and Arava (southern Levant) desert kites: A multi-disciplinary study of past large-scale game traps.
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2005. National Geographic Society. Animal bone remains from the city dump of Jerusalem: reconstructing aspects of urban life in the Late Second Temple Period.
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2004-2007 / Israel Science Foundation. Exploitation and hunting patterns of mountain gazelle and Persian fallow deer during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene of the southern Levant.