Israel Hershkovitz (Hebrew: ישראל הרשקוביץ) is an Israeli anthropologist and anatomist, and a Professor Emeritus at Tel Aviv University's Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.
He founded and led the Dan David Center for Human Evolution and Biohistory Research and the Shmunis Family Anthropology Institute, and he held the Tassia and Dr. Joseph Meyshan Chair of the History and Philosophy of Medicine.
After completing his army service (paratrooper unit, released from military reserved in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel), he began (1972) studying toward his first degree in psychology and anthropology at the Hebrew University.
[2] He then moved his interest to the field of paleopathology, and established evidence-based methods for identifying a variety of diseases in ancient bones (e.g., tuberculosis, multiple myeloma).
In Between, Hershkovitz was involved in studying skeletal remains from many historic sites, with a focus on the Byzantine period (Han-el-Ahmar, Beit-Guvrine, Tira, Rehovot in the Negev, Hagoshrim, etc.).
Hershkovitz's early work focused on the impact of the agricultural revolution on the health, demography, and social structure of Levantine populations, and he contributed to the understanding of micro-evolutionary changes throughout the Holocene.