<ul class="summary-list"><li>A <keyword id="22198765" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="young-boy" source="keywords">young boy</keyword> <keyword id="23013017" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="accidentally-smashed" source="keywords">accidentally smashed</keyword> a 3,500-year-old jar at the <keyword id="22964255" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Hecht-Museum" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Hecht Museum" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Hecht Museum">Hecht Museum</keyword> in Israel.</li><li>The jar, dating back to the Bronze Age, was displayed without glass barriers.</li></ul>It's every <keyword id="23013018" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="parents-worst-nightmare" source="keywords">parent's worst nightmare</keyword>. During a visit to the Hecht Museum at the University of Haifa in Israel, a young boy's father was shocked to see his son next to the shattered<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bronze-age-lost-tomb-ireland-rediscovered-photogrammetry-2024-1" target="_blank"> Bronze Age</a> jar. The boy's father told the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg2j2y20epo">BBC</a> that he first thought, "It wasn't my child that did it," but then told the museum guards what happened after his son had calmed down. The museum said it would not punish the child for the incident as it was a genuine accident. "There are instances where display items are intentionally damaged, and such cases are treated with great severity, including involving the police," said Lihi Laszlo, a spokesperson for the University of Haifa, which operates the museum. The jar has been at the museum for 35 years, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://news.sky.com/story/rare-bronze-age-jar-smashed-by-five-year-old-boy-in-museum-in-israel-13204349">Sky News </a>reported. The museum said it dates to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bronze-age-cauldrons-show-evidence-what-ancient-feasts-looked-like-2023-8">Bronze Age between 2200 and 1500 BC</a>, predating the time of <keyword id="23013020" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="King-David" source="keywords">King David</keyword>, and was intended for the storage and transport of local supplies, mainly wine and olive oil. Similar jars have been found in archaeological excavations, but most were found broken or incomplete, making this jar especially rare because of its intact condition. The jar was displayed near the museum entrance without any glass barriers — an unusual practice for museums but one in keeping with the founder's vision to make archaeological items accessible to the public, said museum director Inbal Rivlin. "The museum believes that there is a special charm in experiencing an archaeological find without any obstructions, and despite the rare incident with the jar, the Hecht Museum will continue this tradition," Rivlin told BI in a statement. Rivlin publicly invited the boy and his family to an organized tour of the museum later this week, which they have agreed to attend. A specialist in conservation has also been asked to restore the jar, and it is expected to be returned to its former glory soon. Editor's note: August 28, 2024 — An earlier version of this story may have misstated the age of the child who broke the vase. Business Insider has not independently confirmed his age, so references to it have been removed from the story.

A 5-year-old accidentally smashed a 3,500-year-old artifact on a museum trip in every parent's worst nightmare

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Receding waters during an <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/climate-change-effects-adapt-or-die-un-ipcc-report-2022-3">extreme drought</a> revealed a 3,400-year-old city along the Tigris River.</li><li>Iraq has been experiencing climate change-induced <keyword id="12004858" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="drought" source="Orion">drought</keyword> for months.</li></ul>A severe drought brought on by <keyword id="11896311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="climate-change" source="Orion">climate change</keyword> revealed an ancient Bronze Age city in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elite-us-trained-operators-in-iraq-are-still-fighting-isis-2022-1">Iraq</a>, and gave archaeologists a chance to map it, <a href="https://kommunikation.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2022/a-3400-year-old-city-emerges-from-the-tigris-river">researchers announced</a> Monday. The drought hit the region in December, prompting locals to draw large amounts of water from a reservoir on the Tigris River, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, to prevent crops from drying out. The lower water levels resurfaced ancient structures from a 3,400-year-old city along the river.Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world, according to the <a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2022/sc14892.doc.htm">United Nations</a>. Warming temperatures have made the country drier and prone to drought, threatening agriculture and the livelihoods of those who live there. "Water reserves are far lower than what we had last year, by about 50 percent," a senior adviser at Iraq's water resources ministry <a href="https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2022/04/21/Parched-Iraq-s-water-resources-down-50-percent-">told AFP in April.</a> The advisor attributed the concerning situation to "the successive years of drought: 2020, 2021 and 2022." Researchers have long known of the city's remains, but can only investigate them when they periodically resurface during droughts. They last emerged during a dry spell in 2018, and researchers aren't certain when they'll be back.<div type="image" title="The team said the ancient city palace with 20-foot-tall walls, several towers and multi-story buildings." height="4608" width="3072" msid="91971892" hostid="261"></div>In January and February, a team of Kurdish and German archaeologists frantically rushed to the archaeological site — called Kemune — to excavate and map most of the city, which includes a palace with 20-foot-tall walls, several towers, and multistory buildings.Archaeologists say the city dates back to the time of the Empire of Mittani, a kingdom which controlled large parts of northern Mesopotamia and Syria between 1550 and 1350 BC. A <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/big-one-mega-earthquake-what-will-happen-california-san-andreas-2019-8">large earthquake</a> destroyed the Mittani city around 1350 BC, causing the upper parts of the walls to come crashing down on buildings and burying them. Experts say being buried beneath the fallen walls might have helped preserve the ancient structures after years of being submerged underwater. "The excavation results show that the site was an important center in the Mittani Empire," Hasan Ahmed Qasim, an archaeologist, chairman of the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization, and a lead of the excavation team, said in a <a href="https://kommunikation.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2022/a-3400-year-old-city-emerges-from-the-tigris-river">statement</a>.<div type="image" title="Researchers found 100 cuneiform tablets, including one tablet which is still in its original clay envelope." height="3058" width="4077" msid="91971894" hostid="261"></div>Researchers also discovered five ceramic jars with more than 100 cuneiform tablets, or slabs of writing used during the early Bronze Age — including one tablet still in its original clay envelope. The tablets date back to just before the earthquake destroyed the city."It is close to a miracle that cuneiform tablets made of unfired clay survived so many decades underwater," Peter Pfälzner of the University of Tübingen, who was also part of the excavation team, said in a <a href="https://kommunikation.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2022/a-3400-year-old-city-emerges-from-the-tigris-river">statement</a>.<div type="image" title="After the research team has completed their work, the excavation is covered extensively with plastic foil to protect it from rising waters." height="3069" width="4092" msid="91971896" hostid="261"></div>The ancient city is now completely underwater. According to a <a href="https://kommunikation.uni-freiburg.de/pm-en/press-releases-2022/a-3400-year-old-city-emerges-from-the-tigris-river">press release</a>, upon finishing up their excavation in February, the archeologists covered the site with plastic sheets to prevent further deterioration when the city, once again, became submerged.The team is not the only group of researchers rushing to preserve artifacts being exposed or destroyed by the effects of climate change. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forensic-anthropologists-on-the-front-lines-as-climate-change-worsens-2022-5">Receding waters, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels</a> are unearthing — and sometimes damaging — new finds. For instance, in Nevada's <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forensic-anthropologists-on-the-front-lines-as-climate-change-worsens-2022-5">Lake Mead</a>, long-submerged bodies have cropped up due to receding water levels. In Hawaii, ancestral remains, which are traditionally <a href="https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/12/a-community-tries-to-save-hawaiian-burials-with-sandbags-as-sea-levels-rise/">buried along the shore</a>, are under threat from coastal erosion and rising seas."Encroaching seas are eroding those burials out and human remains are going to continue to be exposed," Jennifer Byrnes, a forensic anthropologist, told <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/forensic-anthropologists-on-the-front-lines-as-climate-change-worsens-2022-5">Insider</a> in May.

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A 5-year-old accidentally smashed a 3,500-year-old artifact on a museum trip in every parent's worst nightmare

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