3,500-year-old jug smashed by 4-year-old is back on display — still not behind a barrier
Weeks after incident went viral, Haifa’s Hecht Museum exhibits restored artifact in its usual place, with cracks deliberately visible, using the mishap as an educational experience
Gavriel Fiske is a reporter at The Times of Israel
The Hecht Museum in Haifa officially returned a repaired 3,500-year-old ceramic jug to its accustomed place next to the museum entrance on Wednesday, after it had been accidentally shattered last month by a curious four-year-old visitor in a viral incident that made headlines all over the world.
Despite the restoration, the crack marks and damage on the jug were still visible on Wednesday, a deliberate decision on the part of the museum. A small piece was even purposely left out, leaving the restored artifact visibly incomplete.
“Everything that happens to an object is part of its story, even the missing part,” explained Hecht Museum archaeological curator Tamar Rabbi-Salhov, who spoke with The Times of Israel in her book-lined office after the short ceremony, which saw the jug reinstalled at the museum entrance where it had stood without a partition or protective barrier for some 35 years.
Reports of the original incident went viral around the world, in part due to the museum’s unusual philosophy of leaving some artifacts from its collection so accessible, and its magnanimous response to the four-year-old, Ariel Geller, who was invited back along with his family to observe the restoration process and tour the museum.
The whole experience over the last few weeks has caused the museum staff “to sharpen our views even more on how to present the physical culture of the past to a contemporary audience,” Rabbi-Salhov said, something she explained was important to the museum’s founder, industrialist and Israel Prize laureate Reuben Hecht (1909-1993).
Fragile items or those made of precious or biological materials must be protected, she said, but putting objects behind a barrier “creates a buffer, a distance… For years, stronger items from the permanent exhibit like the jug have been displayed without a barrier.”
The jug was displayed on an elevated step and held in place by a metal stand, but “something happened which we had never seen before. A kid came and climbed up; he was very curious about what was in the jug; and it fell,” she said.
Curiosity killed the jug
Ariel Geller, 4, was taken to the museum on the fateful day of Friday, August 23, by his parents, Alex and Anna, who also have two other children. The family lives in the northern town of Nahariya, several miles from Israel’s border with Lebanon, and had been visiting museums and taking day trips around Israel during the summer to escape the tensions in the north, as the area has suffered from regular Hezbollah rocket fire for more than 10 months in a conflict linked to the war in Gaza.
There were a lot of kids at the museum that day, father Alex told AP shortly after the incident, and he said that when he heard the crash, he prayed that the damage had been caused by someone other than his “very curious” child. When he turned around and saw it was his son, he was “in complete shock.”
“But they called and said it was insured and after they checked the cameras and saw it wasn’t vandalism, they invited us back,” he said.
That visit saw the Gellers return a week later with all their children, with some friends and extended family tagging along, for a guided tour of the museum and a workshop on ceramic jug restoration. Little Ariel was gifted a hat and a small, sample ceramic jug as presents from the museum staff.
Reached by phone by The Times of Israel on Wednesday, Alex Geller said: “We are happy that the jar was returned to its place and they succeeded in fixing it, and of course we feel responsible for what happened. At the end of the day, it’s a pity that an ancient jar was broken.”
The family was “very surprised” by Hecht Museum director Dr. Inbal Rivlin, who tracked down the family and “turned this into an educational experience,” Geller said.
The museum’s philosophy that “it’s okay to touch” is understandable, but “they permit big families like us to come in… I hope something like this won’t happen again,” he added.
The Bronze Age Canaanite jar in question was one of the only containers of its size and from that period still complete when it was discovered. It was likely used to hold wine or oil, and dates from between 2200 and 1500 BCE. And now that it is returned to its normal place, it will still be displayed without a barrier to the public.
“These kinds of incidents do happen at museums, but many times it is kept quiet,” noted Rivlin, also speaking to The Times of Israel on Wednesday. The Gellers were “deeply sad” about what happened, she said, and were also afraid of the potential legal consequences of destroying a valuable artifact, albeit inadvertently.
Instead, she said, the museum responded “with compassion,” something that seemed to resonate as the story went viral. “People told me it’s a tikkun olam,” she said, referring to a Jewish concept that roughly translates to “repairing the world.”
“Our Facebook [page] received 6,000 likes, I got messages from around the world, people wanted to donate to the restoration and be a part of this,” Rivlin said.
Many of the comments she received were opinions on issues of parental responsibility, thoughts on punishments for unintentional acts, and notes from museum colleagues around the world on how artifacts should be displayed to the public.
“I am really happy that our small museum is leading a discussion about these issues,” she said.
Northern mandate
The Hecht Museum is housed on two floors of one of the main buildings of the University of Haifa campus, and it enjoys spectacular views of the city and the Mediterranean Sea. The main entrance and display of the restored jug is right across from a busy food court, in an area with heavy foot traffic.
Entrance is always free, and due to its location and historical ties to the university, the museum hosts classes and serves as a training resource for students in the archaeology department. The Hecht Museum also has a small auditorium for performances, lectures and cultural events.
The main permanent collection is a selection of historical artifacts from the Holy Land from various time periods, with a special focus on the “archaeology of northern Israel,” something of a mandate for the museum, curator Rabbi-Salhov explained.
The most well-known display — before the jug incident, that is — was the “Ma’agan Michael Ship,” a sunken boat dating from 500 BCE that was discovered in 1984 in shallow waters just off the coast of Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, south of Haifa. The boat, including the anchor, was restored and housed in a special wing of the museum.
The museum also houses artwork and sculptures from the collection of Reuben Hecht, as well as a collection inherited from the now defunct German-Speaking Jewry Heritage Museum in Tefen, near Nahariya.
For the moment though, about half of the museum is closed off as the staff prepares for major renovations, expected to last up to 18 months, that will see a new wing added to the museum, new interactive displays and educational programming, and reorganization of already existing collections “to create an experience for people that is less passive and more interactive,” Rabbi-Salhov explained.
AP contributed to this report.
