03x08 - Naked Letters

[bunniefuu]

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

- What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi, how are you?

Well, look at that.

I need a planter.

♪ From the mountain top ♪

Shrine to a belly button.

This a rock of salt?

♪ He digs for clues ♪

♪ In his dusty blues ♪

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

No one gets into this place. - No one.

- Don't take me too far.

Now that's naked archeology.

♪ For his archeology ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪

♪ For his archeology ♪

All year long you write us letters, emails,

and even send us carrier pigeons,

asking "The Naked Archeologist" questions.

And today we're gonna answer some of them.

My staff has chosen a few letters

out of the thousands you've sent us.

Today is your day.

Thank you, and here we go.

The first "Naked Archeologist" question is,

"Dear, "Naked Archeologist",

you seem to like to solve

biblical questions with archeology.

So here is a head scratcher for you.

In Genesis ,

it says,

"Leah went out to meet Jacob and said,

'I have hired thee, with my son's mandrakes.'

And he lay with her that night.

Why would someone trade mandrakes for sex?"

You know, it's a very good question

and one of the big Bible stumpers of all time,

but I have a theory about that,

it has to do with the Hebrew for mandrakes,

dudaim, and the Hittites who hail from Turkey.

So let's go to Istanbul to figure this one out.

(upbeat music)

The Archeological Museum of Istanbul.

Oops, sorry, damaged this priceless artifact.

This is where the greatest Hittite collection exists.

Come over here.

Look at this.

These are Hittite inscriptions.

What you have here, incantation against impotence.

If a guy has some difficulty with his lady,

he should get the saliva from a bull with an erection.

I mean the bull has to have

same action the guy has (giggles)

problem or he wouldn't be looking for.

Anyway, that's not hard enough.

He has to find a saliva of a sheep with an erection,

(sheep bleating)

and then he's got to take the saliva

of a goat with an erection.

(goats bleating)

He's gotta mix all this stuff up together and drink it.

If you can't get all that saliva from all these different

animals with erections, there is a fallback position.

If a man's potency comes to an end in the month of Nissanu,

which is April, you catch a male partridge,

you pluck its wings,

and then you pound it up together with

mountain dadanu-plant.

You give it to him to drink in beer

and then the man will get potency.

- [All] Hurray!

- What does this have to do with the Bible?

Let me tell you,

in the Bible it says that

Jacob who becomes Israel, the father of the tribes,

he had two wives, Leah and Rachel.

Leah, he didn't love her as much as Rachel,

but she had lots of kids.

Rachel couldn't have kids.

And there's one episode in the Bible that says,

the oldest son of Leah, Ruven,

went to the fields

and he found dudaim in Hebrew,

dudaim plant and he brought it to his mother.

Now, Rachel says, "Give me that plant."

And Leah says, "No way."

And Rachel says,

"I'll give you my husband for tonight, give me the plant."

Nobody could figure out why would

she trade her husband for a plant.

The answer is in this Hittite inscription,

the dadanu-plant.

That's the same as the dudaim.

It's a solution against impotence,

but I bet you also against infertility.

We actually figure out something in the Bible

by coming to this inscription.

- Just what I was gonna say.

- You didn't think I'd solve that one did you?

- If it were anyone but you, I wouldn't believe it.

- I have a problem with the way my daughter dresses.

Clothes are becoming more revealing every year.

Tell my daughter,

she can look back in history

and see that today's fashions

have actually gone too far.

Well,

I'm not sure that would help

because if your daughter looks to history,

she might end up with a role model like Nefertiti.

So you know what?

Let's go to Ein Gedi.

There we'll meet bestselling author Michelle Moran

as she's written a book about Cleopatra and Nefertiti.

- According to the tomb pictures,

they seem to be some hot babes there, yeah.

- Her blue crown.

- Nefertiti in her famous limestone bust in Berlin.

That was actually probably leather.

She had shaved her hair completely

so that this tight fitting crown

could remain in place.

- Nefertiti in leather. - Nefertiti, she

was completely bald. - In leather?

- Yeah, yes.

(Michelle laughing)

She liked leather and she wore open breasted garments.

- It's not topless.

- [Michelle] Some of them were topless, yes.

- Really?

- No. - Yeah.

- And bald.

- And bald (laughing) and bald.

- So basically, if your daughter isn't bald and topless,

you're ahead of the game.

- Just what I was gonna say.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

- All right, today, by the way

we're answering your letters

and we're going to the ends of the earth

to find out what you want to know,

because today you're in charge.

So let's see what you have to say.

"Isn't it about time you got a new hat?"

Okay, forget what I said about you being in charge.

- What I say goes, see?

- [Jacobovici] No, I love this hat!

Actually, it's a kippa.

Okay, so it doesn't always make my hair look so good.

How's the kippa?

Just flipping up weird.

How's my hair, it's okay?

(monkey screeching)

"What did people in the ancient world do for fun?"

Good question.

One thing we know they did for fun was they had sex.

How do I know?

Because we're here, but you know what?

This is about archeology.

So let's look for the evidence.

In BCE, someone in Egypt painted this.

These people are not playing pinochle.

The Jewish sex, the--

- Jewish sects? - Sex.

- This is ancient religious sex.

Looks old, really old.

- BC.

- No. - Yeah.

- This is , years old.

(upbeat music)

And the ancients played sports.

Here's the evidence.

Although it looks suspiciously like sex.

But they had fun in other ways.

Actually some forms of entertainment in the ancient world

weren't that different from what we have today.

(upbeat music)

I'm on my way to Ein Yael,

just outside of Jerusalem

to learn about Roman fun

from Dennis Zlatopolsky at the Living Museum.

And hopefully I'll be living when I leave.

So, you wanna know what the ancients did for fun?

They did what we do for fun.

They bashed each other in the head.

(sword thumping)

It's blunt?

- It's almost blunt.

- But it could still hurt you.

- You wanna try?

- I'll try that. - Okay.

- I don't wanna embarrass you or anything.

You understand that

I'm like a natural at this.

Ready? Ah!

You weren't paying attention.

Alright I'm getting really, really...

Let's drop the toy with this man.

Oh, oh I got you.

- No.

- Until you pick up a sword and start doing this,

you don't know.

But the Romans also brought their kind of sport to Israel

when they ruled here.

years ago, there was a guy named Herod

who liked to build big.

And his two biggest projects were expanding

the temple in Jerusalem to keep the religious people happy

and recreating Roman fun, where I'm headed now,

up the Mediterranean coast in Caesarea.

Up here, he made a Roman kind of place

with all the fun from home.

Archeologist Yosef Porath has excavated

the first stadium or Hippodrome

to be found in the Holy Land, Herod's Hippo.

- This is a circus or Hippodrome,

mainly for chariot races.

- [Jacobovici] So if it was a big performance,

you think about , people were able to sit here?

- Yes.

- They're bringing my horse.

I'm gonna learn how to ride a chariot.

(horse neighing)

He's farting.

(horse neighing)

This horse has gas.

(upbeat music)

There you go!

Wohoo!

You know when I got there and the horse started running,

I thought, "This isn't funny, we can overturn."

I mean, was it dangerous?

- There were crashes.

(crowd cheering)

If they drive fast, they can simply fall apart.

Then the horses keep running.

Somebody else can step over him.

- That's terrible.

What a terrible way to go, eh?

But it wasn't just blood and guts.

There was a theater nearby, stories about blood and guts.

Wow, there's a modern performance in an ancient theater.

Look at that, doesn't that look nice?

- What is mentioned in Josephus Flavius for example,

stand-up comedy.

There was stand-up comedy here?

Really? - Yes.

- So this guy goes to a pet shop and he says,

"I'd like a dog for my son."

And the pet shop owner says,

"Sorry, don't do exchanges."

(Jacobovici laughing)

You know, today we go to movie theaters.

There's a lot of v*olence,

but it's all pretend.

- Some of the performances were the same in ancient times.

Some were really real.

- Violent?

- Yes.

- So part of entertainment was execution?

- Yes.

- Some kind of fun hasn't changed,

but the ancients blurred the lines a bit by adding

executions to the entertainment.

I guess they figured if you've

got the audience there already,

give them their money's worth.

(crowd cheering)

Here's one.

"Speaking of archeology, how old is your kippa?"

(upbeat music)

Okay I can take a hint.

It's a bit dusty.

It's been on a few archeological digs.

Maybe it's time I find a new one.

I've got such a giant head, I can't find one that fits.

This is pretty big, but I don't think it's me.

Is there a mirror here?

Oh my God.

It's the wrong shape.

I don't think it works.

I'm gonna tell people the secret of this kippa.

- Yes.

- Everybody wants to know where I bought it.

I bought it here.

Where does it come from?

(speaking in foreign language)

Uzbekistan, right? - Yes.

- Now, you know what the trouble is?

All the other ones are small

and this one's giant.

- I have only for baby now, only for children.

- Can I fix my old one with the baby one?

- Try if you can do it, it's okay.

You need to buy two to make one.

- I think the only thing that's left for me to do

is to find a master tailor and combine them.

- Do we have to go through with it?

- Too late to call off now.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

- You write "The Naked Archeologist"

so many letters and today I'm answering them.

At least some of them, and here is one.

"Naked Archeologist, is archeology dangerous?"

Not really.

(Jacobovici crashing)

(glass shattering)

Here's one.

"How do we know how far

back in time the people of Israel go?"

It's a very interesting question

because the fact is that the first inscription,

the first time the word Israel

referring to a people appears

is in a hieroglyphic that's , years old.

It's part of a stele called the Merneptah Stele,

it's in the Cairo museum

and to answer this question, we're going to go there.

(engine roaring)

(upbeat music)

In , a Victory Stele was found.

It's a stone plaque dated to BCE

and in it, the Egyptian Pharaoh at the time, Merneptah,

boasts of having defeated Israel.

How do we know he means the people

and not just the place?

- On the very bottom of that, it was immediately recognized,

was this final unit describing a campaign against Canaan.

Israel is laid waste.

Its seed is naught.

Israel is spelled out with a people determinative.

A seated man and a seated woman over three strokes.

- [Jacobovici] Since hieroglyphics communicate

their meaning in pictures,

in here we see the word Israel seated.

It means there are settled people.

And by saying their seed is naught,

Merneptah is either referring

to their offspring or their grain.

Either way, he's proving that they're already a people.

Well, there you go,

archeological proof that in BC,

the people of Israel were around.

But you know, that inscription actually proves

that they were around even before that,

because the inscription calls Israel a people,

and you can't become a people in days,

you've got to be around for, I don't know,

years before you can amalgamate as a people.

So the Merneptah Stele proves

that the people of Israel are at least

, years old, a little older than my kippa.

Nobody has a head as big as "The Naked Archeologist".

It takes two, not one,

see.

(man speaking in foreign language)

On the street there's Abu Hassan the tailor.

He can put the two together.

Thank you very much.

Tailor.

(man speaking in foreign language)

That way? Okay.

(man speaking in foreign language)

Oh, I see a sign, we're doing good here.

That way? - Yeah.

- Come.

- It's the tailor.

Make one big one.

(man speaking foreign language)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(man speaking foreign language)

(upbeat music)

It's a look.

(monkey squeaking)

I got a new kippa.

He doesn't care.

- This is all of that.

- So which one do you like better?

- I like this one.

- You like the older one?

- The older one.

- Me too, has more character.

- More character.

- I feel the same way.

- [All] Hurray!

(monkey squeaking)

- These questions are incredible.

So let's see what this one says.

This says, "My friend, bet me that you couldn't find

five archeologically important artifacts in a single hour."

(engine roaring)

Look at these stones.

You see these stones?

These stones are ancient.

They were found in ,

when they were doing renovations of this street,

they date back to the middle of the third century.

So we're talking about year old stones.

(engine roaring)

That looks good. - From Jericho it's from.

- From Jericho? - Yes.

- [Jacobovici] Do you know that Jericho

was where they found the oldest

city fortifications anywhere in the world, the oldest.

You know where they got this image?

- Yes. - From the

Arch of Titus in Rome.

So you didn't know there was so much archeology

behind your magnets. - Uh huh.

This is a crown of thorns. - Thorns.

Crown of thorns

- It's not the original?

- Original.

- This is the original?

How could you have two of the original?

(engine roaring)

St. Helena Road.

Helena was Constantine's mom.

(bell dinging)

You know the city inside out.

- More or less. - But you know,

that that ATM is actually connected to archeology.

And I'm not joking.

Over there, they found the earliest piece of blown glass

ever found on the planet.

It was found in a ritual bath.

And in this mikvah,

somebody must have had a little shop for glass

and was tossing all his experimentation.

There was failed pieces--

- So it was quite a few.

- failed little pieces

that show the process of blowing glass.

But the Middle Ages, for example,

Italian glass was really started by crusaders who brought

Jewish families out of Jerusalem and brought them back

to Italy to teach them glass making.

And the earliest piece was found under the ATM machine.

(crowd laughing)

Hey, the ATM machine doesn't work.

(bell dinging)

Did I make it?

- A magician.

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

♪ He's a tall tall man ♪

- Today, I'm answering your letters

and we're learning a lot about the Bible, archeology,

and you, so here we go.

Let's see.

Let's see what you have to say over here.

We see a lot of depictions of Jesus' sandals in movies,

but are any of them accurate?

Do we know what Jesus wore on his feet?

Well, we don't have Jesus' sandals, but you know what?

We just may find sandals from Jesus' time or even before.

The go-to person for sandals in the ancient world

is Orit Shamir from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

What do you got there?

- Some sandals for Masada.

- This is a sandal worn by one of the defenders of Masada.

- And we can see-- - Jewish Alamo,

give me freedom or give me death,

but you could see it's narrow.

So you could see it's a woman's.

years after Jesus,

the last holdouts of the Jewish rebellion against Rome

ended up here at Masada.

With the Romans closing in on them,

they committed mass su1c1de

rather than face sl*very or execution.

And the woman who wore this sandal was one of them.

And Orit has another surprise for me,

a pair of sandals, even older,

from the cave of the warrior.

- And you can see the sandals of the warrior.

- [Jacobovici] Oh my goodness.

We're talking , years? - [Orit] Yes.

- [Jacobovici] , year old sandals.

- [Orit] He was very tall, centimeters.

- A giant. - Yes.

Very good preservation of sandals

is really very, very rare.

- [Jacobovici] A pair of sandals

from , years before the time of Jesus.

This is the oldest evidence of humanity I've ever seen,

and it's not stone or pottery, but clothing,

which connects us directly to a person;

real naked archeology worn next to the skin until the end.

And speaking of the end,

one viewer writes in about ancient burial practices saying,

"I know that before coffins, there were bone boxes."

Of course you know, you watch the show, right?

But you ask, "What was there before that?"

Good question.

And the archeological evidence is in Jerusalem

right behind the Begin Center,

there they found a pile of bones dating

to the time of King Solomon.

And the expert is world famous archeologist,

Professor Gaby Barkay.

- Now, this large hole here

is surrounded by entrances to the burial chambers.

There is one here, flanked on all sides by elevated benches

where the six headrests, one, two, three, four, five, six.

- [Jacobovici] They would leave their dead here.

And the flesh would decompose leaving only the bones.

- After about a year, they came back and they collected

the bones and the burial gifts.

And they deposited them down into this hollow,

which we call a repository, is the place in which the people

in their lifetime could see the pile

of the bones of their ancestors.

It stresses the power of family.

- It was very comforting. - Very comforting.

- In fact, I gotta tell you Gaby,

I really feel some great energy here.

I feel so good about it.

I think I wanna take a little lie down here.

You know, this is a good place.

Because I also see that they were shorter than I am.

- [Gaby] Is it comfortable?

- Yeah.

- Bye-bye. - See you later.

Wow, imagine staying here for a year.

My flesh would fall off

and all that would be left would be my bones and my kippa.

Well, we all end up as archeology

so if they ever come across me a long time from now,

I'd like to be found with this on my head.

Well, we've been to Egypt to Turkey

and all over Israel to answer your questions.

I wanna thank you for the frequent flyer,

walker and donkey miles.

(donkey honking)

We have time for one more.

Let's see, do we have another one?

Yeah, we have one more.

Look at this, what does it say?

It's got even a photo in here.

What does it say here?

"Hello, I'm a "Naked Archeologist" too

and I've enclosed a photo.

(crowd screaming)

Does anyone vet these?

♪ He's a tall, tall man ♪

♪ From a tall, tall land ♪

♪ He makes no apologies ♪

♪ For his archeologies ♪

♪ He's a tall, tall man ♪

♪ From a tall, tall land ♪

♪ No apologies ♪

♪ For his archeologies ♪