Ariel Heller, 4, helps glue a broken clay pot back together during a special visit with his family after accidentally breaking another pot at the Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, on Friday. The boy who accidentally broke a rare 3,500-year-old pot at an Israeli museum has been forgiven and invited back, as curators hope to turn the disaster into a learning moment.
Maya Alleruzzo/AP
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Maya Alleruzzo/AP
HAIFA, Israel — As her 4-year-old son browsed the ancient artifacts in the Israeli museum, Anna Geller looked away for a moment. Then there was a sound: A rare 3,500-year-old jar shattered on the floor, and her son stopped in amazement.
“It was just a one-second distraction,” said Geller, a mother of three from the northern Israeli city of Nahariya. “And all of a sudden I heard a huge boom boom behind me.”
The Bronze Age jar that his son, Ariel Geller, smashed last week has been on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa for 35 years. It was one of the only vessels of its size and era still complete when it was discovered. It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates to between 2200 and 1500 B.C.
What might be considered a parent’s worst nightmare became a rewarding experience Friday, when the Geller family returned to the museum, which is affiliated with the University of Haifa in northern Israel. Ariel presented the museum with a clay vase of his own and was greeted by gracious staff and curators.
This undated image provided by the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa shows a rare Bronze Age pot that was accidentally broken by a four-year-old child during a visit to the museum in Haifa, Israel.
Leo Correa/Hecht Museum staff via AP
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Leo Correa/Hecht Museum staff via AP
Alex Geller said Ariel, the youngest of his three children, is exceptionally curious and that as soon as he heard the sound of the crash last Friday, the first thought that crossed his mind was: “Please make sure that’s not my child.”
“I feel ashamed,” said Anna Geller, who desperately tried to calm her son after the vase shattered. “He told me he just wanted to see what was inside.”
The pot was one of several objects on display outdoors, part of the Hecht Museum’s vision to allow visitors to explore history without glass barriers, said Inbar Rivlin, the museum’s director.
She said she wanted to use the restoration as an educational opportunity and make sure the Gellers — who cut their initial museum visit short shortly after Ariel broke the pot last week — feel welcome to return.
Nahariya, where the family lives, is in an area just south of the Israel-Lebanon border that has been the target of Hezbollah rocket fire for more than 10 months in a conflict related to the Gaza war. This summer, the family visited museums and took day trips to Israel to escape the tensions, Geller said.
There were a lot of children at the museum that day, and he said when he heard the sound of the crash, he prayed that the damage had been caused by someone else. When he turned around and saw it was his son, he was “completely shocked.”
He went to the security guards to let them know what had happened, hoping it was a model and not a real artifact. The father even offered to pay for the damage.
“But they called and said it was insured and after checking the cameras and seeing it wasn’t vandalism, they invited us back for a make-up visit,” Alex Geller said.
Experts used 3D technology and high-resolution videos to restore the pot, which could be put back on display as early as next week.
“That’s what’s really interesting for my older kids, this restoration process and all the technology they use there,” Alex Geller said.
Roee Shafir, a conservation expert at the museum, said the repairs would be fairly straightforward because the pieces came from a single, complete jar. Archaeologists often face the more difficult task of sifting through piles of shards from multiple objects and trying to piece them together.
Shafir, who was painstakingly reassembling the pot, said artifacts should remain accessible to the public, even if accidents happen, because touching an artifact can inspire a deeper interest in history and archaeology.
“I like people to touch. You don’t want to break things, but touching things is important,” he said.
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