Ephraim Stern

Ephraim Stern was born in 1934 in Haifa

Stern was born in Haifa in 1934 to Rachel and Moshe Stern, the second of three brothers. As a child he was active in the Scouts and Gadna, and he graduated from the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa. His parents both died in 1953, and he married Tamar Brutzkus in 1960. They had two sons.

He joined the IDF in 1952 and served as an officer in the Nahal reconnaissance unit. He fought in three wars and reached the rank of major in the reserves.

In 1955 he began studying archaeology and Jewish history at the Hebrew University. After his MA he taught at Tel Aviv University and helped found its Institute of Archaeology, and he earned his PhD in 1968. In 1971 he returned to the Hebrew University at the request of Yigael Yadin and taught there until he retired in 2002.

His research focused on the material culture of the land in the Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian periods, and on the Phoenicians. He excavated at Gilam, Tel Kadesh and Tel Mevorakh, and directed the Tel Dor excavations from 1980 to 2000. He edited the journal Qadmoniot and was chief editor of the New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land.

He headed the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology and chaired the Israel Exploration Society's board. He received the EMET Prize in 2005. He died on March 23, 2018, and was buried at Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim.