Archeologist is ‘naked’ and in your face

Simcha Jacobovici combines archeology and a hipster's approach to explore biblical stories, Michael Posner writes
By MICHAEL POSNER
Thursday, September 1, 2005 Updated at 9:35 AM EDT

You've heard about The Naked Chef, of course: Britain's Jamie Oliver, who lays out the bare essentials of his culinary art in a popular TV series. And you may remember Naked City, a gritty black-and-white police drama from the sixties.

But are you ready for The Naked Archaeologist?

That would be Toronto documentary filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici, who has turned his personal passion for biblical archeology into a 26-part series for Vision Television (debuting Labour Day).

Best known for Deadly Currents (a film about the Arab-Israeli conflict), Quest for the Lost Tribes of Israel and Impact of Terror, an account of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, Jacobovici has appeared before in his documentaries, in cameo roles or as the voice-over narrator. The Naked Archaeologist, however, marks his debut as a host and interlocutor.

He's no more naked than chef Oliver. What lies exposed -- in a hip, fast-paced and sometimes irreverent way -- is the dirt-encrusted, myth-enshrouded subject of ancient archeology itself.

Instead of arid lecturing and endless camera pans of biblical paintings and illustrations, Jacobovici takes an in-your-face approach to his material. He engages with some of the world's leading experts, spars playfully, challenges them to defend their theories and occasionally proffers one of his own. Along the way, he explores ancient caves, experiences car trouble, buys falafel, and spray paints his own graffiti signature on a stone wall -- all in the good name of archeology.

“The Bible is the central, foundation story of Western civilization,” Jacobovici explains. “Our entire belief system is based on it. But academics have largely mythologized it, and mystified it with an arcane language. They've managed to alienate us from this cultural cornerstone. So I'm trying to burst the bubble a little, and let people see archeology stripped of that obscuring veneer.”

The series grew out of two earlier documentaries he had made -- on the so-called James ossuary, the box thought by some to have once contained the bones of Jesus' brother (and thought by others to be a hoax), and a new, 90-minute feature doc on the biblical exodus from Egypt. The latter is scheduled for broadcast later this fall.

“As a result of making those films,” Jacobovici says, “I entered into this subculture that's connected to a kind of biblical sleuthing. And as The Da Vinci Code novel suggests, and in its own way, Mel Gibson's film about Christ, there is a huge interest in biblical stories told in a popular way.”
So Jacobovici pitched it to Vision.

“His original proposal was a bit dry,” says Alberta Nokes, the channel's director of independent production. “But Simcha is so passionate about the subject that I told him to be a kind of Columbo -- show us the different sides of the argument but take a position, so we know where he stands. Because while archeology adopts the scientific method, it's really very interpretive. And in addition to his enthusiasm, Simcha has a lot of knowledge.”

The first episode, Delilah's People, examines the Philistines, a seafaring people who fled an unknown disaster in the Aegean Sea and settled on the Mediterranean shore of what is now Israel, about 1,000 years before the birth of Christ. Although the term “Philistine” is now derogatory, connoting a person without taste or sophistication, archeologists say that in biblical days, Philistine culture was far superior in almost every respect (pottery, metallurgy, political organization) to the indigenous Israelites.

In the season's second episode, Who Invented the Alphabet?, Jacobovici observes that, while the Greeks are traditionally credited for the invention, the transition from pictograms to the more democratic, phonetic letter-based system actually occurred first among Semitic tribes in Egypt. This revolutionary form of communication migrated north through the Sinai desert to the land of Canaan.

Jacobovici's theory -- fascinating but unproven -- is that the alphabet may have been first taught to Hebrew slaves by Moses himself.

Subsequent episodes cover a wide range of topics, including what archeology tells us about the biblical diet; a discussion of Jesus'early years; the debate over King David; and Montreal Gazette writer Henry Aubin's account of how a black pharaoh from Nubia saved Jerusalem -- and the future of Judaism -- from marauding Assyrians in 703 BC.

Shot on a relatively large budget of about $120,000 per episode, The Naked Archaeologist is “an experiment,” Nokes says and a departure for Vision. “I think archeology buffs will watch it because it has enough meat, and we hope it will also appeal to a younger demographic.” Hence, the sometimes frenetic editing style, more reminiscent perhaps of an MTV video.

So far, the series has only been sold in Canada.

Ironically, Nokes says, at least one potential foreign buyer abroad has already criticized the series as too Canadian, even though its core subject is the ancient Holy Land. To appease the mandarins that administer the Canadian Television Fund, the producers were forced to inject gratuitous Canadian material. Thus, whenever a Canadian archeologist is interviewed, he or she is always labelled “Canadian.” And the series' opening segment, in which Jacobovici is shown packing his bags for the Middle East à la Indiana Jones, has him include, of all things, a hockey stick. “We were basically told to do it,” Nokes explains.

The Naked Archaeologist premieres Monday at 9:30 p.m. EDT on Vision.

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