Add Category
A parent's embarrassing anecdote has turned into a learning opportunity after a boy who broke a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age jar was invited back to the scene of the accident.
Ariel Geller, a four-year-old Israeli boy visiting the Hecht Museum in Haifa with his parents and siblings last week, wanted to "see what was inside" a large clay jar estimated to date from 2200 to 1500 BC.
Ariel's mother, Anna Geller, said she looked away for just a moment while the family was moving through the ancient artefacts on display at the museum before hearing a crash.
The jar was likely used to store oil or wine during the Bronze Age. (AP: Hecht Museum staff)
"It was just a distraction of a second," said Ms 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."
The Bronze Age jar had been on display at the museum for 35 years, and was one of the only containers of its size, likely used to store wine or oil, and from that period still complete when it was discovered.
"I'm embarrassed," Ms Geller said, who tried desperately to calm her son down after the vase shattered.
"He told me he just wanted to see what was inside."
The Geller family was welcomed back to the museum on Friday for a special tour, where they were met by curators and staff, and where Ariel helped to glue together another clay jar with his siblings.
The Bronze Age 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 felt welcome to return.
Alex Geller said Ariel — the youngest of his three children — is 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.
After sending a prayer that the damage was done by someone else, he realised Ariel was responsible.
He went over to the security guards to let them know what had happened in hopes that it was a model and not a real artefact, even offering 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," Mr Geller said.
Ariel's parents say they were very embarrassed by the accident but that their son was a "very curious" child. (AP: Maya Alleruzzo)
Experts were 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," Mr Geller 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.
Trying to piece together shards from multiple objects into a single one is much more daunting, and usually the task archaeologists face without whole artefacts.
Mr Shafir, who was painstakingly reassembling the jar, said the artefacts should remain accessible to the public.
"I like that people touch. Don't break, but to touch things, it's important," he said.
AP