Archeological study reveals unique 35,000-year-old culture
was nominated for best musical, best lead actor for Tony Shalhoub, and best lead actress for Katrina Lenk. It was also nominated for best original score for David Yazbek, best book for Itamar Moses, best featured actor for Ariel Stachel, as well as for best direction, best orchestration, best scenic design, best sound design and best lighting design. Stachel, who comes from a Yemenite-Israeli family, plays Khaled in the show – his first ever role on Broadway.
The cast was live on The Today Show on Tuesday morning when they were informed of the news, and were overjoyed to hear.
“If someone had asked me what would be the most unlikely thing to happen in my career,” said Shalhoub, “this would be it – to be nominated in a musical.” The actor added that the show is “just a really unique story about people coming together through music.”
Shalhoub, best known for his role on the TV show Monk, exited The Band’s Visit earlier this year. In the coming months, Sasson Gabai, the veteran Israeli actor who portrayed the lead role of Tawfiq in the film, will be taking on the role on Broadway as well.
“I’m very excited to replace him,” Gabbai told Yediot Aharonot in February. “This is a surprising journey of a film shot in Yeroham which has made it all the way to Broadway.”
Many of the cast members have said that they traveled to Israel to get a feel for the place, the people and the accent before taking on their roles.
The 2007 film, The Band’s Visit, was critically acclaimed when it was released in Israel, receiving eight Ophir Awards, including for best film, best director, best lead actor for Gabbai and best lead actress for the late Ronit Elkabetz.
The plot follows an Egyptian police band that arrives in Israel to play a concert. After a mix-up at the border, they are sent to a remote village in the middle of the desert. With nowhere to go, the unlikely guests are taken in by the locals, and “their lives become intertwined in the most unexpected ways.”
The musical adaptation first premiered off-Broadway in late 2016, and moved to Broadway in November 2017. The New York Times called the Broadway adaptation “one of the most ravishing musicals you will ever be seduced by.”
The Tony Awards will be held in New York City on June 10.
Deer bones found in a cave in the Galilee have pointed to a unique cultural group that may have arrived in the region from Europe between 35,000 and 38,000 years ago.
Newly published research regarding this group in the Levant (Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria), points toward distinct cultural entities with distinguishing characteristics already existing in the early stages of human history.
The research was a collaborative effort between Dr. Jose-Miguel Tejero of the French National Center for Scientific Research; Prof. Anna Belfer Cohen and Dr. Rivka Rabinovich of the Archeology Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; emeritus Harvard University Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef; and Hebrew University’s Dr. Vitaly Gutkin.
The study examined remains of ancient Levantine deer bones, found in the Hayonim Cave in the Western Galilee, and discovered a cultural symbol: bones with specific grooves appearing in a fixed area.
The study posits that this may have been a unique symbol of the local ancient culture that acted as a marker for the group – perhaps sewn into a garment or worn as a pendant to differentiate the group’s members from other groups living in the same area.
This is in contrast to other objects found in the area, used for everyday activities, such as hunting, preparing food or processing skins.
Other remains found, which included stone vessels, bone vessels and horns, are similar to remains found of an ancient culture in Western and Central Europe that existed during the years of the Levantine period. Thus, there is a working assumption that the group arrived here from Europe, lasted a relatively short time and then disappeared or merged with the local cultural entities.
“It was interesting to examine systematically the nature of these items which were created out of dissected animals and to note how different they are,” Rabinovich explained. “Microscopic observations, as well as data obtained with the help of the scanning electron microscope (which has become an important tool in archeological research), made us aware of the uniqueness of the symbols.”
“Likewise, at the end of each observation like this, the question remains: What were these items really used for? This is the most fascinating part – trying to understand behavior not necessarily tied to survival,” she said.