It is one of the most significant museums in Greece as it includes findings that were brought to light during the excavations of the Archaeological Company of Athens in Akrotiri, the earlier excavations of the German Archaeological Institute and the excavations of the KA’ Curatorship of Antiquities at different spots.
By exhibiting a selected number of the thousands of findings that have been stored, specialists try to outline the different phases of Thera’s existence in the Prehistoric years which actually rendered the southern island of Cyclades one of the most important urban and cultural centres of the Aegean Sea in the 18th and 17th century B.C.
The museum can be considered as a development of the archaeological site of Akrotiri, as it hosts wall paintings and mobile findings of this urban centre at the era of its greatest proliferation.
In the meantime, it includes findings from several other sites of Thera which are dated back to the 5th millennium B.C. (Latest Neolithic period) until the 17th century B.C. and demonstrate the passage of various civilisations of the Aegean Sea in the long prehistoric era. All exhibits are maintained in an excellent condition.
The permanent exhibition is placed on the second floor of the building (600m2). In the first floor you can find some workshops and temporary exhibitions.
WALL PAINTINGS
Some of the most remarkable exhibits of the museum are the wall paintings and other art pieces that were discovered in private and public buildings of the town of Akrotiri and are presented in room D3. The most well-known ones are the wall painting of the Women and the Scripts, the wall painting of the Spring with the flirting swallows, the wall painting of the Apes, the African, the Adorant monkeys, the Bird.
For more information you can visit http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/1/gh155.jsp?obj_id=3325
Info
Tel: +30 22860 23217
