02x11 - All in the Family: The Story of Lot and His Daughters

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Hi, how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa! Don't take me too far.

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

I've been thinking about Sodom and Gomorrah lately.

I don't know about you, but when I watch the news,

I think about Sodom Gomorrah.

I think about a nuclear apocalypse.

If you remember the story, there's Lot, Abraham's nephew.

He's in these two sinful cities by the Dead Sea,

the lowest place on earth.

And God says, "I'm going to destroy them."

Is there any archaeology to back up the story

of Sodom and Gomorrah? I'm on a quest to find out.

[SIMCHA] The Bible describes five sinful cities

called the "Cities of the Plain".

God rains fire down on them

but he allows Lot and his family to escape on one condition:

they must not look back.

Lot's wife disobeys

and is transformed into a pillar of salt.

Lot and his daughters now take refuge in a cave

outside the city of Zoar,

the only of the five cities not destroyed.

And there, believing they are the last people on Earth,

the daughters get their father drunk

and set about re-populating the planet

with their children, who the bible calls

Moabites and Amonites.

You have to admit that the story of Lot

and his daughters does sound strange.

Okay, more than strange. Maybe a little creepy.

I don't know if many people stop you in the street

and ask you about Lot's daughters.

Do you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?

If really Lot would sleep with his two daughters,

so we all would look like this.

All because of the genes.

Yeah, because of the genes.

Do you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?

I know the story.

The Naked Archaeologist is perfect for Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know, Pharaohs married their daughter.

All the time. Yeah. And they looked pretty weird,

if you look at the mummies.

With his head like this.

The head was a little bit.

You know, we're not going to look too good

years from now, either.

[SIMCHA] In fact, the story of Lot and his daughters

is so strange that archaeologists and scholars

say they never even existed.

Not even a trace of the five cities of the plain

could be found.

So scholars came up with a whole other explanation.

The Bible was totally against the daughters of Lot,

the way they are presented to the reader.

First of all, the fact that they were the last ones on Earth.

They should have asked their father.

He knew very well that just Sodom and Gomorrah

are being ruined, and the whole world is still there,

so there was no reason to do it.

And then, when the son is born,

or the two sons are born, Moav,

meaning from my father,

I am my grandfather's actually son,

telling the whole world I am a result of incest.

Of course, that's a story that has been told

by the Israelites in order to keep them

as far as possible from the Ammonites and the Moabites.

The Bible wants to separate us from these peoples.

And the best way to separate us from these people

is to tell us that they are a result of incest.

You don't want to mingle with these guys.

[SIMCHA] So is it really just a Biblical warning?

A story that makes the Moabites and Ammonites look bad?

I think there's more to it than just ancient propaganda.

But to prove that the story happened

you'd first have to find the places where it happened:

Sodom and Gomorrah and Zoar.

And maybe even the cave

where Lot and his daughters hid out.

But archaeologists say that if evidence exist,

it could be anywhere.

Maybe even as far away as Iraq.

Are the cops after us?

[SIMCHA] So if I'm going to find them

I'm going to need a map. A really old map.

And Jordan has the very best of the ancient maps.

This is the Church of St. George.

Every year thousands of tourists come here

to see the Sixth century mosaic map on its floor.

But what most don't realize

is that the map is key to decoding

some of the biggest archaeological mysteries

of all time.

I came here with Dr. Konstantinos Politis

who for more than twenty years

has been excavating sites in Jordan related to Lot.

Ok let's start at the beginning.

What are we looking at here?

We're looking at a floor of an ancient Christian church

made out of mosaics, cut stones.

And it has a map of the ancient holy land

of the early Christian Holy Land, th, th century AD

and it's unique. There's no other map like this.

But what's amazing to me

is that it doesn't just depict things.

It actually labels them.

Label is the right word.

It's exactly, this is why it's so important.

It's telling us what these buildings are and the location.

So is it, is it fair to say that it's-

you can use it almost like a treasure map.

Let's locate, you know, whatever the Nanaya?

or the Modian? Or-

Definitely, definitely.

Also it works the other way around

you may find an archaeological site

and try to fit it into this map.

[SIMCHA] With the help of this map

archaeologists have uncovered the first hard evidence

that one of the cities of the plain really did exist.

Where, where would Sodom be

and how would you know that?

Well we don't exactly know where Sodom is

or Gomorrah for that matter

but we do have one of the cities of the plain here.

Zoarah which survives labeled here on the map.

And the one that was not destroyed.

When, when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Sodom and Gomorrah yes.

Interestingly it's on the map as a city

which wasn't destroyed should be and the other ones are not.

We have no label or identification on this map

where Sodom or Gomorrah were,

but that's for the moment the only other evidence

we have that's parallel or correlates

with the old testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

[SIMCHA] For years archaeologists and scholars

insisted that the story of Lot was fiction

because no evidence of it was found outside of the Bible.

[SIMCHA] So I'll clean up this map and follow the ancient clue

that tells us that not far from Madaba

there should be evidence of Lot.

Look at this dirt. I can't believe it.

I would keep this mosaic a lot cleaner.

Well you've got the job.

[SIMCHA] I'm traveling through Southern Jordan

looking for archaeological evidence that the story of Lot

and his daughters and the

destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah might be true.

that the only evidence of the cities of the plain

When archeologists followed this trail,

they found an ancient city

right where the map said it should be.

Dr. Konstantinos Politis is in charge

of excavations at this site.

So we've just entered the city of Zoar.

These are, this is one of the gates of Zoara.

We're in the gate.

We're inside the gate.

This is actually the top of it,

so it would have been above our head.

Another couple of metres down is the actual floor.

So Lot would have walked below us.

Perhaps. I mean, these stones actually belong

to a much later, Christian, Medieval period.

But down below, when we finish our excavations,

hopefully we'll find the Bronze Age period.

Do you doubt that you'd find the Bronze Age period?

Well, no, because we've got an Iron Age site.

So we've got Bronze and Iron Age occupation material.

So there must be some here too.

So is this identified as biblical Zoar?

We have inscriptions from the Christian period

and from later periods that

identify this as the city of Zoar.

[SIMCHA] The evidence suggests that

this is the city that Lot fled to.

Somewhere in the mountains near here

there must be a cave where Lot and his daughters-

well...

I'm sure you haven't forgotten that part of the story.

Even so, when asked about the story

of Lot and his daughters, most scholars said:

"This is nonsense."

Although Zoar existed they said,

not one single mention of Sodom or Gomorrah

could be found anywhere outside of the book of Genesis.

But in archaeologists found a year old library

in the desert of Syria.

inscribed clay tablets. A royal library at Ebla.

Royal letters, dictionaries, school texts

and evidence that Sodom and Gomorrah existed.

Biblical Zoar, it's mentioned in the bible.

You've got hard archaeology here identifying the place,

you've got a map,

you're in a lucky place you've corroboration everywhere.

Tell me you have also you have a text

in Ebla that actually dates to that time

that speaks to the cities

and actually mentions Zohr specifically.

Yes well the clay tablets,

the text that were found in the city,

in the ancient city of Ebla in northern Syria are,

well one of them greatest treasures

let's say have been discovered in the late th century.

They very interestingly recap the story of Sodom and Gemorrah

from Genesis in the bible.

They recap that story on one of these tablets.

But what's also interesting, they mentioned the five cities

in the same order that they are mentioned in the bible.

So it's a completely separate piece of evidence.

So the oldest mention of the cities.

Non biblical, outside of the biblical.

Outside of the biblical.

So, this is a nice piece of synchronicity

between the Bible, the tablets of Ebla

and northern Syria and here in Jordan,

the actual site of Zohr.

Yes. the puzzle begins to come together

but it's a big puzzle.

[SIMCHA] Finally concrete proof that a place

called Sodom existed.

But where should I look. It's not on any map.

So I decided to go back to the source.

The Book of Genesis. It says that Lot left Sodom

in the morning and "the sun was risen

upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar."

So Lot walked from Sodom to Zoar

in less than a day.

It's gotta be around here somewhere.

And there's another clue in the Bible,

one that synchronizes perfectly with the landscape

and will help lead us to an ancient city

that might be Sodom.

[SIMCHA] I'm in Southern Jordan looking for evidence

of Lot and Sodom.

It's four hundred meters and more than a thousand feet

below sea level.

It feels as though the landscape itself is evidence.

I'm standing at the Dead Sea.

Actually, I'm standing in the Dead Sea,

or what used to be the Dead Sea.

As the waters recedes, they leave behind boulders of salt.

And sometimes it looks like a body part.

Now, this is the place that's

literally the lowest place on earth.

Interestingly, the Bible describes this place

as morally the lowest place on earth.

Is this a rock or salt?

Lot's wife turned, looked back on that terrible place,

and turned into a pillar of salt.

This is what she got for not listening.

Everything fits.

Except those tiny little pillars behind me

because there's no way Lot was married to a midget.

[SIMCHA] But the question is: Where's Sodom?

How can you ask such a question?

[SIMCHA] The city of Zoar has been found,

but the ancient map at Madaba

gives no indication of where the other cities

of the Plain should be.

So I decided to look for more clues in the Bible.

The book of Genesis says that Lot journeyed East

leaving his uncle Abraham in Canaan

and "he saw the plain of Jordan,

that was well watered everywhere,

even as the garden of the Lord."

And that's where Sodom was.

In the middle of this desert

I need to find a well watered plain.

And as I drove North from Zoar,

I was surprised when the landscape suddenly changed.

At the base of the mountains there's a fertile plain,

just as the Bible describes.

And sixteen miles North of Zoar,

North-East of Biblical Canaan,

here above the fertile part of the Dead Sea Plain,

there are the remains of a year old city.

Youssef Hilo has been excavating here for a decade,

and he took me on a tour of what might just be Sodom.

Oh, wow. Look at that.

Look at that thick wall, four metres wide.

That's bronze age.

B.C.

Now, what do you see at the back of this valley?

Vegetation? Yes or no?

Yes.

North, south, east, and west.

Dead Sea is north-northwest of here.

It goes within the orientation mentioned in the Bible

with regards to Abraham and Lot having a quarrel

after coming from Egypt, south-southwest. Coming here.

And this is where the story of the destruction

of Sodom and Gomorrah took place.

So let me get this straight.

You're telling me it fits with the biblical story.

What you're telling me is that's a Bronze Age story,

Abraham.

That's a Bronze Age story.

This is a Bronze Age site.

Site. Absolutely.

It fits in the geography, you're telling me.

Like, where they separated, they came back, it fits.

Up to an extent, yes.

But now we've gone from is Sodom here?

Because I heard people say it's in Iraq, it's all over the-

We've gone from that to not if it's here.

Where exactly is it?

You cannot tell that, where exactly,

because the city was destroyed, remember?

Right. -Go right ahead.

Alright, Ok.

[SIMCHA] There's another piece of synchronicity

with the Bible here.

The Book of Genesis says that when two angels came

to take Lot away from Sodom,

he met them at the gates of the city.

Spectacular. Where's... Is this the gate here?

That's the gate there.

Right there, eh?

Yes, absolutely.

This must be one of the oldest gates ever found.

Uh, yes. I cannot prove less, absolutely.

Oh my goodness. Look at this.

This is totally spectacular.

This is breathtaking, like to be in a bronze age gate

at a candidate for Sodom or Gomorrah at the Dead sea

is just amazing. Just amazing.

[SIMCHA] If this is Sodom it's one more piece of evidence

in my quest to find the truth behind the story

of Lot and his daughters.

The Bible says that God rained fire and brimstone

on Sodom and Gomorrah.

The destruction was so great

that more than a thousand years later

the historian Josephus claimed that fruit on the trees

in this valley dissolved into ashes when it was picked.

Here at Bab edh Drah there is conclusive evidence

that the city was destroyed by fire.

Looks like the Grand Canyon.

Now, let me add one more thing I wanted to-

Yes.

Can we tell whether this place was destroyed?

This is an early Bronze Age site,

totally destroyed in by fire

we have traced through the stratigraphy.

Abandoned?

Abandoned right afterwards.

It was never reused after that date again.

And this is good.

But the problem is we cannot really find the match,

because it's in the Bible,

it's in different time. Different date.

So the destruction layer, here,

is too early for the Abraham and Lot story.

Yes. Abraham and Lot could have been later in time.

Still, I cannot decide this a hundred percent.

[SIMCHA] From here you can walk south to Zoar

in a few hours, just as the Bible says.

Above Zoar are the mountains

where Lot and his daughters would have taken refuge.

And on the ancient mosaic map at Madaba

there's one more clue.

Following it archaeologists have made an astonishing discovery.

One that suggests that the story

of Lot and his daughters may be true.

I would never even think to look here.

[SIMCHA] It turns out that all over Southern Jordan

there's evidence that links the Dead Sea Plain

to the story of Lot and his daughters.

I thought I told you to k*ll that story.

[SIMCHA] By following clues

found on the ancient mosaic map

at Madaba, archaeologists have uncovered

the biblical city of Zoar.

On the mosaic map there's one more clue.

In the mountains near Zoar,

right where the Bible says Lot and his daughters

took refuge, there's a place marked "Lot's sanctuary."

When archaeologists began uncovering

a Byzantine church here,

they looked at the map and realized

that this must have been the church known as Lot's sanctuary.

But why build the church here?

As he excavated, Dr. Konstantinos Politis

soon discovered what it was that made this site

so important to early Christians.

You were just sitting over here eating lunch?

We would have our lunches here

without knowing what was below us.

And then how did you get to this?

Slowly, slowly we excavated in ,

', '. And by we found our first inscription

which said: "Saint Lot please bless the builders,

the actual builders of this church."

[SIMCHA] The inscriptions confirmed

that this Byzantine church was in fact dedicated to Lot.

But what archaeologists found next

surprised even them.

On September the th, ,

we came across the top of the Cave.

We had local labour and you try to train them

so they dig properly in layers.

And they were digging a little bit of a hole,

as they often do, and I said, "Don't dig holes."

"But, sir, there's a hole here." I says, "Don't dig a hole."

And he'd come across, actually, the top of the cave,

and I was scolding him.

But once, you know, I realized it was a cave there,

then, you know, of course, I forgot about that,

and we very quickly uncovered the top of the cave

and then, eventually, the entire cave.

That's incredible.

They changed the locks on him,

they locked you out of your own dig.

[SIMCHA] But why had Christians built a church here?

Come on in, make yourself at home.

What the team found inside the cave

may explain why early Christians believed this cave

was Lot's cave and may prove to be a link to Lot himself.

So this is the cave.

This is the cave the Christians believed was Lot's Cave.

So we took out a wall here, found a tomb over there,

and, we took out the floor here.

And if you can see here, down below about a metre or two,

there's another wall, very rough.

We had lots of little pots and large pots, a couple of burials,

some nice flints,

all dating to the period of around , years ago,

the same period of Bab edh Draa

and another couple of sites..

Bronze Age.

Bronze Age period.

Bronze Age is when the story of Sodom and Gomorrah

is supposed to have taken place.

That's controversial.

Some people date it a little bit later.

But this is the early Bronze Age

It doesn't matter.

This shows at that time, this cave,

there was activity in it.

Yes.

So if the Byzantine Christians

who built this site were correct

then this is the site where the biblical Lot took refuge

with his daughters to get away

from the massive cataclysmic event

of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

This may be the actual spot

if those traditions are correct.

Yes. And if it isn't here, it's nearby.

[SIMCHA] If it isn't here, it's nearby.

What archaeologists have uncovered here

shows that almost years ago

the people who built this church believed

that this was the cave

that sheltered Lot and his daughters.

How much further back does the tradition go?

There's no way of knowing,

and no way of proving that Lot actually hid here.

But the geographical clues

and the archaeological evidence seem to match up.

It all fits the biblical story.

So Lot might have stood right here,

looked out over this vantage,

witnessed the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah