A four-year-old child was invited to revisit the Hecht Museum in Haifa after accidentally breaking a 3,500-year-old urn from the late Bronze Age. The historic artefact was damaged last week while on display at the University of Haifa Museum. Despite the mishap, the museum’s director, Dr. Inbal Rivlin, welcomed the child back for a guided tour and to see the fully restored urn.
The urn was one of the items exhibited openly as part of the museum's approach to allow visitors to closely engage with history without glass barriers. The BBC described the dishware as an extraordinary and relatively well-preserved item from the Bronze Age, dating between 2200 and 1500 BC. In a video shared by the network, the young boy, Ariel Geller, is seen examining the artefact alongside his family.
During the visit, a museum official explained the entire restoration process to Ariel's family, detailing the history of the urn. Ariel's mother recalled that at the time of the incident, the child had asked to look at the jar, and the urn shattered just as she instructed him to step back from the display.
"It was just a destruction of a second," the mother remembered.
Remarkably, Ariel was even given the chance to assist with some restoration work, piecing together a small broken jar with the help of specialised tools.
Dr. Rivlin was quoted by Sky News, stating, "In a similar manner to the repairs currently under way on the ancient jar, this is exactly what professionals do."
The museum noted that the urn, distinctive of the Canaan region, predates the times of King Solomon and David and was traditionally used for storing and transporting local goods like olive oil and wine.
The University of Haifa’s campus hosts the free museum, which showcases a collection of archaeological artefacts from the Chalcolithic to Byzantine eras.