Smashed by a 4-year-old, ancient jar back on display at Israeli museum

By Melanie Lidman The Associated Press

3 months ago

A rare bronze-era jar, newly reassembled, returned to public exhibition after a four-year-old accidentally broke the jar in August during a visit in Hecht Museum of the University of Haifa, Israel, on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Ariel Heller, 4, center, and his parents Anna, right, and Alex, center left, take part in a special tour after the child accidentally broke an ancient jar at the Reuben and Edith Hecht Museum in Haifa, Israel, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024. The boy who accidentally broke a rare 3,500-year-old jar in an Israeli museum has been forgiven and invited back, as curators hope to turn the disaster into a teachable moment. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

TEL AVIV, Israel — A rare Bronze-Era jar accidentally smashed by a 4-year-old visiting a museum was back on display after restoration experts were able to carefully piece the artifact back together.

Last month, a family from northern Israel was visiting the museum when their youngest son tipped over the jar, which smashed into pieces.

Alex Geller, the boy’s father, said his son — the youngest of three — is exceptionally curious, and that the moment he heard the crash, “please let that not be my child” was the first thought that raced through his head.

The jar 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.

Rivlin and the museum decided to turn the moment, which captured international attention, into a teaching moment, inviting the Geller family back for a special visit and hands-on activity to illustrate the restoration process.

In other developments:

* The World Health Organization said the United Arab Emirates evacuated nearly 100 critically wounded and sick Palestinians from Gaza, including cancer patients, for medical treatment in the Gulf Arab state. The U.N. health agency said on Thursday that a total of 252 Palestinians from Gaza, including 97 patients and their relatives, flew the previous day to Abu Dhabi in the UAE from the Ramon airport in Israel.

* Authorities months later have filed charges against nine people who are accused of trespassing or resisting police during the May break-up of a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of Michigan. “The First Amendment does not provide a cover for illegal activity,” Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday, a day after charges were filed in Washtenaw County.

* The European Union’s top diplomat, Jossep Borrell, on Thursday urged Lebanon and Israel to work on deescalating tensions along the border, saying that since his last trip to the region in January “the drums of war have not stopped pounding.”