Strata: Fourscore Years Ago…

Ephraim Stern, one of Israel’s most distinguished archaeologists and longtime editor of Israel’s semipopular archaeology journal Qadmoniot, recently turned 80. So his staff secretly printed 30 copies of alternative covers of a recent issue of the journal that did not go to subscribers.

One cover (the Hebrew side) features a picture of Stern; on the other cover (the English side) is a drawing of the inside of a temple excavated at Omrit (on which there is an article inside).^a Inside the Omrit temple on the body of a large vase sitting on a pillar stand is a picture of Stern. We print this cover above.

Of course this was intended to be a private joke, so we would ask our readers not to circulate this picture.

We may take this occasion to wish Ephraim happy birthday from everyone at BAR.—H.S.