Smashing a rare museum artefact dating back thousands of years would probably earn you a lifetime ban at the very least.
But a four-year-old who accidentally toppled a jar from the bronze age, leaving it broken into pieces, was welcomed back to the Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, a week after the unfortunate incident.
“It was just a distraction of a second,” said Anna Geller, a mother-of-three from the northern Israeli town of Nahariya. “And the next thing I know, it’s a very big boom boom behind me.”
Her son, Ariel, was perusing the museum’s ancient artefacts when Anna looked away for just a moment. Then a crash sounded, a rare 3,500-year-old jar was broken on the ground, and her son stood over it, aghast.
The bronze age jar that Ariel broke last week has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered. It was probably used to hold wine or oil, and dates back to between 2200 and 1500BC.
On Friday, the family returned to the museum. Ariel gifted the museum a clay vase of his own and was met with forgiving staff and curators.
Alex said Ariel, the youngest of his three children, was exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash last Friday, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.
“I’m embarrassed,” said Anna, who said she tried desperately to calm her son down after the vase shattered. “He told me he just wanted to see what was inside.”
The jar was one of many artefacts exhibited out in the open, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision of letting visitors explore history without glass barriers, said Inbar Rivlin, the director of the museum.
She said she wanted to use the restoration as an educational opportunity and to make sure the Gellers, who curtailed their initial museum visit soon after Ariel broke the jar last week, felt welcome to return.
There were a lot of children at the museum that day and Alex said he was “in complete shock” after learning that it was his son who caused the damage.
Alex went over to the security guards to let them know what had happened in the hope that it was a model and not a real artefact. The father even offered to pay for the damage.
“But they called and said it was insured and after they checked the cameras and saw it wasn’t vandalism they invited us back for a make-up visit,” Alex said.
Experts are using 3D technology and high-resolution videos to restore the jar, which could be back on display as soon as next week.
“That’s what’s actually interesting for my older kids, this process of how they’re restoring it, and all the technology they’re using there,” Alex said.
Roee Shafir, a restoration expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly simple, as the pieces were from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more daunting task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Shafir added that the artefacts should remain accessible to the public, even if accidents happen because touching an artefact can inspire a deeper interest in history and archaeology.
“I like that people touch. Don’t break, but to touch things, it’s important,” he said.
