National Archaelogical Museum of Athens

The  National Archaeological Museum of Athens is one of the most significant museums worldwide.The  Museum  is dedicated to the history of ancient Greece and covers 11,000 exhibits from 7000 BC to the Roman conquest.

With it's reputation exceeding the borders of Greece, the national Archaeological Museum is visited each year  by thousands, full of enthousiasm, tourists from Europe and all over the world.

The primary plan for the Museum was to include discoveries from excavations of 19th century, mainly from Attica. However later, progressively  became the central National Archaeological Museum and was enriched with discoveries from all the regions of Greek world.

 The largest  and  most glorious  museum in Greece, has it"s roots in the history of the First Greek State. The protection and the compilation of antiquities constituted one of the most basic priorities of first governor of country, Ioannis Kapodistrias. Primarily, the first Museum was founded in 1829  in the island of Aegina. However, with the displacement  of  Greek capital in Athens,  simultaneously was created the need for the foundation of  a Central Museum for Antiquities.

 Frasikleia

The Museum, which is situated in an impressive and imposing building in the centre of Athens,  was built in  the 19th century,  primarily in drawings of L. Lange and finally configured by Ernst Ziller. His nunerous and important exhibits will transfer  you in a unforgettable historical trip in the very depths of art. Museum"s rich collections will impress you and  surely you shall dedicate enough time, in order to  admire it"s appreciable exhibits.

It"s storage and exhibition places , numerous and immense spaces in each floor, cover a range  totally of  8.000 square meters,  and include  five big permanent collections:The Prehistoric Collection, which includes works of the great civilisations that developed in the Aegean from the sixth millennium BC to 1050 BC (Neolithic, Cycladic, Mycenaean), and findings from the prehistoric settlement at Thera. The Sculptures Collection, which shows the development of ancient Greek sculpture from the seventh to the fifth centuries BC with unique masterpieces. The Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which contains representative works of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period and includes the Stathatos Collection. The Metallurgy Collection, with many fundamental statues, figurines and minor objects. And, finally, the only Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection in Greece, which dates from the pre-dynastic period (5000 BC) to the Roman conquest.

The Neolithic Collection includes exhibits from settlements and cemeteries of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands, dated from the Neolithic period and the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Includes clay and stone vessels, figurines and tools which date from  6800 BC to 1600 BC. The finds display in the Room 5 , on the museum's ground floor. Also,is set out in chronological order, beginning with the Neolithic period and ending in the Middle Bronze Age.

The Mycenaean collection covers objects of the Late Bronze Age, mainly from large centres of the Argolid, especially Mycenae, but also from Messenia, Lakonia and Attika. Display occupies  room 4, situated in the museum's ground floor, and  room 3. The finds are grouped chronologically and by provenance.

The Cycladic Collection displays civilization of the Cycladic islands during the Bronze Age, such as the famous Cycladic figurines, the pan-shaped vessels with ship representations of the third millenium BC. Also bronze tools and wall-paintings. The exhibits occupy room 6 on the museum's ground floor, where they are grouped chronologically and by provenance and type.

The Thera exhibition  contains important finds from the settlement of Akrotiri in Thera, which was destroyed by the sixteenth-century BC volcanic eruption. This glory exhibition introduces in  room 48, on the museum's first floor, contains several impressive wall-paintings from Akrotiri's houses, as well as vessels, tools and weapons of the period.

Sounion kouros 

The famous Sculpture collection of the National Archaeological Museum contains exhibits from the mainland Greece and the Aegean islands: statues, reliefs  architectural groups, sarcophagi, busts, altars, statues of animals, Hermaic stelai, several vases and bronze figurines, etc. The display covers an extent  about 4,000 square metres, in the rooms 7-34, on the building's ground floor.The majority of the sculptures grouped concerning their type and category.

The museum's Vase and Minor Objects Collection, covers the ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period. The collection combines mainly attic vases, provincial workshops, terracotta figurines and sarcophagoi. The display, occupies rooms 49-56, on the museum's first floor.The exhibits grouped by  the chronological evolution of manufacturing techniques.

The Metals Collection displays significant bronze artefacts,since 1893. Also, the collection comprises figurines and minor objects, and large original bronze statues, such as the Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, the Artemision Jockey, the Antikythera Youth and the Marathon boy. The collection occupies rooms 36-39, in the north-eastern side of the museum's ground floor .The objects are grouped by provenance, type, date, workshop and function.

The impressive and, unique in Greece, Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection derives, mainly, from  two large donations by Greek expatriates in Egypt: 1880-1885 donations of Ioannis Dimitriou from Lemnos, who lived in Alexandria, and  1904 donation by Alexandros Rostovitch from Cairo. Statues, figurines, reliefs,  funerary stelai, mummies, ceramic, stone vessels, canopic jars, jewelry and other artefacts are displayed in rooms 40-4, following a chronological order.

The Stathatos Collection lists 970 objects from  prehistory  to modern times (eighteenth century). It was donated to the Greek state by Eleni Stathatou in 1957. The collection is displayed in Room 42 of the museum's ground floor. It contains ornate gold and silver jewelry, clay and silver vessels, sculptures and figurines, and a series of exquisite miniature works in bronze, clay, glass, and bone, from various Greek and Near Eastern workshops.The exhibits are grouped geographically and in chronological order.

Beyond the permanent collections interest present the frequent periodical exhibitions of the Museum, as the exhibition of the mechanism known as the Antiκythera Shipwreck and titled:“ The boat - the treasures - the Mechanism”, which is presented from April 2012 until 29 June 2014.

Antiκythera Shipwreck 

 Τhe main splinters of Mechanism of the Antiκythera Shipwreck are exposed in the copper  Collection in the National Archaeological Museum. The mechanism is stored in the Museum from his discovery, in 1901. Also, important discoveries from the Antiκythera Shipwreck are found in rooms and garden οf the Museum.

In addition, this spectacular museum functions as a centre of research for scientists from  all over the world and participates in the development of special educational and other programs. In it' s special auditorium  are organised interesting archaeological lectures. Also, the Museum provides the possibility of conducted tour of individuals  persons with hearing inadequacy. It participates with his lending of work in reports  in Greece and abroad.

It"s renewed library, aged 118 years, carries more than 20.000 titles. Τhe first Museum of the country, owns modern laboratories of conservation of metal objects, ceramics, stone, organic matters, and also photographic  and  chemical laboratory.

Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision

The most well-known exhibits of the museum, among others, are included: Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision, Myrrini lecythus, Igesous column, 

Igesous column

the Child of Marathonas,the golden mask of “Agamemnon”, the Antiκythera Shipwreck e.t.c.

In Museum"s southern area, is accommodated the Epigraphic Museum,which allocates 14.000 inscriptions from Greece and the Asia Minor and is the biggest  museum, in this category, worldwide.

In the modern and hospitable Museum Shop  you have the possibility to obtain copies of exhibits, interesting books and choose from a big collection of mugs for  hot or icy chocolate or coffee.

Finally, in the modern café of  the Museum, in a oasis of an idyllic, full of greenery, environment, among statues and mosaics, you can enjoy your coffee and delicious beverages or tasty sweets. Wi-fi access is provided.

Info box:

Hours of operation: Tue - Sunday: 08:00 - 20: 00

Address: of 28 October 44

Contact: +30 213214 4800/+30 213214 4890

Ticket: 7 Euros

Low cost ticket: 3 Euros

Access: Underground and Train, Station Omonia or Viktoria, Buses& Τrolley

Info: www.namuseum.gr

Top 5 Exhibits:

1. Antiκythera Shipwreck
2. Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision

3.    Igesous column

4.    Frasikleia

5.      Sounion kouros


By Evelina Nodara Posted www.athens24.com 2014