Image Details
Photo courtesy Omrit Excavations, temple reconstruction by Carrie Reid, photo montage by Rob Sugar, Auras Design
ON THE COVER: An imposing Roman-era temple, shown in an artist’s rendition, dominates the countryside at Omrit, in Israel’s far north. The still-impressive remains of the actual temple, visible at bottom in the photo, led investigators to organize a full-scale excavation of the site. In the course of four seasons, the Omrit team has uncovered two temples—one built atop the other—at the site. In “Discovering Herod’s Shrine to Augustus,” co-authors J. Andrew Overman, Jack Olive and Michael Nelson explain why they believe Omrit was home to the long-elusive third temple built by Herod to honor his imperial patron.