02x24 - Coat of Many Colors

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Is this a rock of salt?

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa, don't take me too far!

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

[SIMCHA] The history of fashion

has gone through so many changes.

What was a fad yesterday...is old hat today.

From togas to tie dyes, bowties to neckties.

Satin & spandex to nylon & rayon,

we've had it all.

But being the Naked Archaeologist

I'm on a hunt to find out what fashion looked like...

in biblical times.

Look at this! Clothes with coins.

But is it biblical fashion?

I wouldn't put my money on it.

[SIMCHA] Did they follow fads like we do today?

What do you think? Biblical clothes?

[SIMCHA] What fabrics did they have to work with?

Did they have dyes?

Did colours & patterns have meaning?

How did class and wealth determine what they wore?

And then there's the most famous piece of biblical clothing,

Joseph's multi-coloured coat.

What material was it made from?

How was it colored?

Can we really find out how a coat

that dates back years was made?

I'm on a quest to find out.

You were in that movie!

[SIMCHA] Fortunately, I've bumped into

some stylish young fans of mine.

Maybe they can help me on my quest

to find biblical clothes

and perhaps even Joseph's multi-coloured coat.

Do you think there were fashion victims even then?

Yeah, for sure. -Yeah.

Human nature is to have fashion.

We need to dress ourselves nicely.

What kind of materials do you think they used?

Cotton. -Cotton.

And linen. -Linen.

Camel skin? Like you can't wear your car...

but in the old days, you rode your camel,

and when the camel gave out...

Yeah.

Moses, all our leaders were shepherds.

They probably used the wool.

I wear wool, and it's really nice.

So What about colour?

Depending on the status of the person.

You think colour meant status?

The more money you had,

the more dye you could afford.

Joseph's coat.

You're very right.

Joseph had a multi-coloured coat.

Do you think they dyed it

or do you think they just had multi-coloured sheep?

Definitely dyed.

I'm going to go with the multi-colored sheep.

You're going to go with the multi-colored sheep?

[SIMCHA] Many biblical scholars

have speculated on what Joseph's coat

may have looked like.

Could it have been made from camel skin?

Was it striped or plaid or even spotted?

Well, what do we learn from the Bible?

In the book of Genesis,

we learn that Jacob had twelve sons,

but his favourite is Joseph.

To show his love for Joseph,

Jacob gives him a beautiful coat.

The lovely coat Jacob sews also sows the seed

of jealousy within his brothers,

who sell him into sl*very for twenty pieces of silver.

Take him away!

[SIMCHA] His luck worsens

when he's locked in an Egyptian prison,

but like his father, others also fall for Joseph,

and eventually he becomes the chief advisor

to the Egyptian pharaoh.

And all this started with a coat.

Does the Bible give us any clues

as to what kind of fabric this coat was made from?

We know that Jacob was a shepherd.

So it would make sense that the coat

would have been made from the wool of his sheep.

And in Genesis , we discover

that he raised a rare breed of sheep...

they were spotted!

The most famous garment in biblical history,

Joseph's multi-coloured coat.

But was it dyed?

Or was it made from naturally spotted wool?

I'm looking for that rare breed of Jacob sheep,

naturally spotted.

And I've come here to the zoo

to find Jacob's sheep. And here they are,

the rare breed of biblical sheep.

Jacob's sheep. Baaa baaaa.

Daddy has the good stuff.

Look at this. Come on.

Come on over there. Come over there.

Move your spotted asses.

Here here. Come over here guys.

So here's the story.

Jacob runs away to his uncle.

Uncle is named Laban.

Laban is not a nice guy.

His name means white-

he's got a lot of white sheep.

He exploits poor Jacob.

Finally, Jacob says, "I'm not getting paid enough.

You're ripping me off."

So Laban says, "You know what?

You can keep all the spotted sheep."

There weren't very many.

All the sheep were white.

They were like this white guy.

Suddenly, all the sheep go spotted.

[SIMCHA] But how did Jacob's sheep get their spots?

He used artificial selection

choosing to breed select parents

to get the desired spotted sheep!

And Jacob's biological experiment

is the first in recorded history!

Who would have thought that Jacob

was a pioneer in animal eugenics?

Heck, maybe he even bred a few plaid

and paisley sheep as well.

So here's the question: did they dye the wool?

Or did Jacob have so many spotted sheep

that he just took what was natural,

no dying, and gave him the best of the spots?

Makes sense. He had lots of spotted sheep.

He made his son a special coat.

It was a coat of multi-spots.

Okay here!

I'm developing a relationship with the sheep.

[SIMCHA] But I've also heard

that some biblical scholars believe Joseph's coat

may not have been coloured at all.

One of those scholars is Professor Yair Zakovitch.

Let's talk about Joseph and his fashion sense.

What's that story all about?

Well, it's a story about Jacob's love

of his beloved son, Joseph.

So he gives him a special garment,

which is usually translated as

the coat of many colors.

But, actually, it should be better translated,

a sleeved tunic.

Meaning a tunic that reaches the extremities,

the ankles and the wrists.

What's the Hebrew word for it?

The word in Hebrew is ketonet passim.

Through biblical Aramaic,

we know that passiada is actually the hand.

So it's a tunic that reaches the wrist,

the hand, and also the ankle.

So in the original Hebrew,

it doesn't talk about many colors?

No, not at all.

[SIMCHA] Did Joseph really receive

a long-sleeved tunic and not,

as is commonly translated,

a multi-coloured coat?

Unfortunately, the less common words

in the original Hebrew Bible

are more difficult to interpret.

The rare word "Passim", has born

multiple interpretations including colourful,

long-sleeved, striped, embroidered,

and even "with pictures".

The word may even reflect the material used,

whether fine wool or silk.

Look even if I pretend to understand

the word ketonet passim,

I must admit that, well, I have to use,

you know, biblical Aramaic in order to interpret it.

It's not so very clear that I'm right in the way

I interpret the word.

This word ketonet passim, really,

people didn't know what to do with it.

[SIMCHA] So we cannot know for sure,

from the biblical text,

what Joseph's coat looked like.

But maybe archaeology can help us!

We know Joseph was sold to the Egyptians.

Maybe our answer lies there.

[SIMCHA] I've been on a quest to find out

what the coat that Jacob gave his son Joseph

looked like in the famous biblical story.

The most common interpretation is that

it was a multi-coloured striped coat.

But on my journey, I've discovered

that Jacob bred spotted sheep.

Instead of being striped, could the coat have been

made from these spotted sheep?

Even more puzzling, biblical scholar Yair Zakovitch

believes the original Hebrew Bible

may have described the coat as long-sleeved,

which was later misinterpreted as multi-coloured.

Maybe archaeology can help us unlock this mystery.

In the biblical story, after receiving his coat,

Joseph is sold into sl*very in Egypt

by his jealous brothers.

So I've come here and traveled down the Nile

to a place called Beni Hasan.

Here we discover an amazing group of tombs

whose walls are covered with elaborate paintings.

Here we also discover what look like Israelite traders.

Travelling to faraway Egypt, these Israelites

would have worn their finest clothes,

just as the coat Jacob would have given his son.

And what do these paintings show?

Clothes that are colourfully patterned and striped.

Additionally, these paintings are years old,

dating to the same time as the story of Joseph.

These may be the best illustrations

of what Joseph's coat actually looked like.

But how were these vibrant clothes dyed?

To answer this question I need to find a chemist

who understands how clothes were dyed in ancient days.

And I know just the guy.

Come out of the closet Zvi

[SIMCHA] Zvi Koren, an expert

in the chemical makeup of biblical clothes

and how they were dyed.

Zvi can tell us with exact precision

what dyes were used to colour clothes in ancient days.

Maybe here I can find out what colours were available

years ago

when Jacob would have dyed Joseph's coat.

You're, like, a bit of a sleuth.

You figure out what biblical people wore,

and what colours.

How do you do that, and what have you figured out?

We take an ancient fabric

and we extract from a very small piece

the colours that are on it.

And we get a chemical fingerprint

of these particular colours.

We look all over the world for various plants.

When you get a match,

you know that this plant was used for these colours.

So where exactly did the dying start?

Dying itself, started all over the world.

So the ancients all over the world used dye.

The ancients all over the world used dyes.

And you realize that the ancient dyer

was an incredible chemist.

They knew which plant gave you red colours.

They knew how to mix colours to give you

different shades.

They knew from various plants to use the flowers;

other plants they knew the leaves would work;

other plants it's the roots.

Also the Talmud describes various plants that were used.

Alright.

So you've got plastic bags full of stuff here.

That looks like something you smoke...

Actually, you don't smoke it.

These are the roots of a certain plant called madder.

And this particular plant can give you wonderful shades

from pink to red, to brick orange,

and even purplish colours.

Take a look at the beautiful red on the inside.

You put it into hot water,

and then the red colour is extracted.

And then you can do a dying of a textile with that.

This is beautiful.

You can see the red at the side.

Look, it's coming right off on my finger.

And this is indigo. They call it istis or isatis.

This is a natural indigo.

from the plant that is known as the indigo plant.

And it describes also this one.

This dye stuff is called safflower.

And it's amazing that both of these different colours,

a yellow one and a pink one,

originate from the same dye stuff.

[SIMCHA] So there we have it!

The three primary colors

which would have created all the colours Jacob needed

when dyeing Joseph's coat,

they grew wild in the fields where Joseph tended sheep!

So Jacob had everything required

to make a coat of many colors-

the sheep for the wool and the plants for the dyes.

But how exactly did he turn sheep's clothing

into Joseph's coat?

It's time to pull up my sleeves and get my hands dirty

because I'm going to learn

how clothes were actually made in biblical times.

[SIMCHA] In my quest to find out

what Joseph's coat actually looked like,

I need to learn how clothes were made

back in biblical times.

So I've come to the biblical Landscape Reserve,

Neot Kedumim, where they still make clothes

the way they were made thousands of years ago.

I've come here to try my hand at biblical clothes making.

I've never sheared a sheep before

but I promised my guide Cory Morag

no animals would be hurt in the making of this show.

I don't want to hurt the sheep.

I'm feeling quite sheepish about this.

Look at that eh.

[SIMCHA] I've kept my word.

The sheep is safe and I've got the wool I need.

But given that sheep don't take regular showers,

this wool needs to be cleaned,

which is done by boiling it in kettles.

Woah! So sorry!

As I stand here I'm beginning to smell

a not so pleasant odour

coming from these, kettles...

It's not pleasant at all.

Cleaning wool is a very smelly process.

Women weren't supposed to be involved in this process.

So that, that they don't smell too bad.

[SIMCHA] And I can understand why!

Glad that that's over, it's time to comb the wool.

Going to comb the hair and untwine it.

Kind of when you comb your own hair

and open up all the knots.

It's a women's job to take care of the wool

and have the wool prepared for weaving.

Traditionally you're saying it's always been women?

Yes. She would also take care of her kids

and take care of the fields.

Do it all?

Yeah, do it all.

Just like today. -Yeah.

Women still do it all, right?

Yes.

Do you want to try again?

Okay, I'll try.

I want to show that I'm so comfortable

with my own masculinity that I can do this women's work.

How do I do this?

Other way. You need to pull on it.

Show me. Like that? Oh.

[SIMCHA] Not wanting to hog the limelight,

I let these talented women take on the next step,

spinning the wool into yarn.

Oh look at that.

The idea is to twine all together

and then it just ties in together into a thread.

And that's what I'm used to seeing in a ball of wool.

And the last step, dyeing the wool.

Here's where my talents as an artist can really shine.

Look at this. That's so great. What's this?

In here we have pomegranates that are boiling.

Here we're going to make brown dye

for the wool. And this is madder.

[SIMCHA] Madder, which we now know,

was used to make red dyes.

What do we got over there?

That's isatis.

[SIMCHA] Isatis, which we discovered

makes blue pigment.

Let me try to put a little of it in the pesto.

Ah, I feel like singing in Italian.

It's starting to get blue.

Hey, yeah. Look at that. Look at that.

We're actually making dyes

the way they used to make in biblical times.

, years ago.

Yeah.

How do you feel about that?

It's amazing.

It is amazing, isn't it?

All the stuff that you need just grows around you.

I guess you'd feel different

about wearing clothes that you actually dyed.

It's worth the labour.

You make something out of the fabric

that you made, it's pretty amazing.

When you read the story

about Jacob giving a multi coloured coat to Joseph,

to make one of those coats would have been a

tremendous investment. What resonates with you?

It's a lot of love going into these things.

It's about what you put into what you,

what you do and what you wear and what you use.

[SIMCHA] I can now see the amount of love

that went into making biblical clothes,

and particularly Joseph's colourful coat.

But I want to see real clothes from biblical times...

maybe even Joseph's coat?

[SIMCHA] On my quest to find out

what Joseph's multi-coloured coat looked like,

I've discovered it could have been spotted,

striped, possibly not even dyed at all.

But if I'm going to cr*ck this mystery,

there's one place I need to visit,

the Israel Antiquities Authorities' textile department.

I feel like a child in a candy shop in here.

I love this place. I could live here.

I would never go home.

These are the storerooms of the materials,

which arrive from the excavation.

When textiles are found they are brought here?

Yes, they are brought here because...

Here? -Yes.

To you. You're the boss.

I am the boss, yes.

[SIMCHA] Meeting with Orit Shamir,

I'm hoping to see if any clothes from biblical times

have lasted all this time.

Maybe she can even shed light

on what Joseph's coat may have looked like.

Where do you keep the textiles?

We keep them in special conditions

in the store room.

Special humidity and special light.

Oh wow. Are these textiles?

Yes, we have here thousands and thousands

of textiles dated from years ago and later.

What is amazing that dyes were preserved.

ll the textiles from Israel were found at the sites,

which are very dry.

[SIMCHA] Incredible.

Textiles dating back years!

Boxes and boxes of them, preserved by the dry weather.

What have we go here in this secret box?

Let me show you.

Please don't touch because it is very fragile.

This looks brand new.

Yes, but they are years.

years old?

Yes.

The dyes were very good quality,

so because of this it kept for years.

If we take this example,

they dyed it with indigo mixed

and madder and they mixed them together.

It give you this kind of reddish-purplish...

Yes.

Look, it matches what you're wearing today.

Oh, thank you, yes.

I like this colour.

[SIMCHA] Amazing, ancient yarn

that looks brand new.

But Orit has something even more exciting to show me.

This piece is part of a pillow

which was found at the Cave of the Letters.

A pillow case. -Yes.

This is years old?

Yes.

If I saw something this good in a cave,

I would think it's modern.

It would never occur to me

that this could be years old.

So if we could go back in time

through a time machine , years ago

and meet Joseph,

would you expect that the garment that he was...

would be wearing would look something like this?

Probably, yes. It is made of wool,

and also decorated with very coloured stripes.

So when the Bible talks about

the coat of many colours,

you're saying it is made of

similar material, similar design.

Yes, exactly.

We found wool textiles from the time of Joseph.

So we know wool was here in this period.

Why not cotton?

Cotton was not used during

the period of Joseph in the land of Israel.

So because of this we can assume

it was made of wool.

And we know that during this period

of the middle Bronze they used wool.

They used wool.

Probably they used also the same colours

because they knew how to produce the red dye

and also the blue dye.

When the Bible talks about Joseph's coat,

is it talking about a stripes garment?

Or is it talking about a long sleeved garment?

I think it is talking about stripes

because the brothers of Joseph,

when they saw it, they were amazed

from the colours from the garment,

from the stripes.

So they wouldn't have been jealous

just because he had a long sleeve?

Yes, probably. In every day life they used textiles

which are undyed

because dyeing the textiles is a long process

and very expensive.

So if all there was to it was their little brother

got a long sleeves,

they wouldn't have been very excited.

Yes, probably.

Well, there you go folks.

We went on a mission to find Joseph's coat

and we found it.

I never thought when we went searching

for Joseph's coat of many colours

that we would get within years of the real thing.

[SIMCHA] So we've come to the end of our journey,

having found what Joseph's multi-coloured coat

probably looked like.