Tuesday 30 March 2010

(T) Eretria exhibition in Athens National Archaeological Museum



Image: Head Medusa (gorgoneion), from the House of Mosaics in Eretria (4th c. B.C.)

The history of ancient Eretria from its founding to late antiquity shall be presented through excavation finds, drawings, models and videos in the exhibition that opened 26 April at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. "Eretria: Looks at an ancient city" is the title of the exhibition and its aim is to give a lively and original image of the lives of the people living in it.

Seven Greek Museums and the Muzei Capitolini of Italy participate in the exhibition, which includes 437 objects.

It is organised in four sections. The first presents the early inhabitants of the city, the prime during the Geometric Period, commerce and external relations (Mende, Methone, Dikaia, Pithecuses, Kyme, Zancle),

and also the development of
alphabetic writing. The second section centres on matters of daily life, presenting public buildings but also luxurious private houses, the functions of the Agora, the stoas and the Gymnasia, but also private life.

A special section is comprised of worship in the sanctuaries of Eretria - the city god was Appolo Daphniforos (Laurelbearer)-, while the last section concerns matters of death and the afterlife, presenting necropolises, burials and offerings to the dead. Among them, golden crowns and other jewellery used to adorn the deceast before burial, weapons, exquisitely painted lekythoi and bronze mirrors.

The exhibition is co-organised by the Swiss Archaeological School which is excavating and studying the remains of ancient Eretria in Euboia. After its end, on the 25th August, the exhibition will be presented in the Ludwid Collection in Basel (from September 2010 to January 2011.

Source: To Vima
Translation: ArchaeologyMatters

See also:
Further Reading:
  • Keith G. Walker, Archaic Eretria: A political and Social History from the Earliest times to 490 B.C., London 2004. Online Here.

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