Thessaloniki Archaelogical Museum

Yesterday we went to the Thessaloniki Archaelogical Museum. The museum has exhibits of Archiaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman sculptures from the city of Thessaloniki in particular and the Macedonia region in general.

Most of the Eau Claire Study Abroad Students

Vase for a Burial:

It is one of the finest examples of local (Thessaloniki) pottery.

The band with birds was a favorite decorative motif.

The scene of a hunting dog chasing a rabbit in the lower band is unique.

Late 8th - early 7th century B.C.

Laws in ancient Macedonian times were engraved into stones like this one.

Specifically this stone was a "Royal law that settles the boundaries between certain cities that lie to the north of the Chalkidiki." The features that mark the borders are:

• Landscape features (the rivers Ammites and Mones, the Hermaion mountain etc.)
• Place - names (Hephodryon, Prinos, Lefki Petra etc.)
• Rural sanctuaries (Hermaion, Dioskourion, sanctuary of Artemis etc.)
• Roads, paths and private lands (i.e. the fields owned by Eugeon

Mt. Cholomondas, Chalkidiki
350 - 300 B.C.

Ancient Macedonians grew wheat, olive trees and vine.

The gourmands of antiquity cherished the mullets adn octopuses of Thasos, the squid of Dion, and the filet of a kind of shark fished in the Toroni area of the Chalkidiki.

In this picture there is a purplish picture on the right (it is hard to see) and it is a Fish tank.

* Built in the wall are vessels where fish used to hid to protect themselves from heat and sunlight and to lay their eggs.

Country house in Paliomana, Veroia.

2nd - 3rd century A.D.

On the bottom:

Fishing gear: hooks, needles, weights

Farming tools: mattock, axe, pick axe, sickles, pruning shears, knife

4th - 2nd century B.C.

Another ceremonial Vase

Statue of Ascelpius
The rod and the sacred snake are symbols of the god.
Ano Apostoloi, Kilkis
(ancient Morrylos)
1st century B.C.

The symbol of the snake and rod is what we we now refer to as Caduceus or the symbol of medicine (also called the Wand of Hermes)

Statue of a man wearing a breastplate

possibly of the emperor Augustus.

This may be the very statue dedicated by the priest Apollonius as described in an inscription discovered in the same region.

The thunder bolt on the epaulet of the breastplate is a standard emblem of Augustus.

Kalamoto, Thessaloniki

(ancient Kalindoia)

Late 1st century B.C.

This slab was probably dedicated to Isis in the 1st century B.C. by two or more women, perhaps freedwomen of the same Roman lady.

The Derveni Crater

It is composed of a special alloy composed of bronze and tin, which allows it to display a golden sheen wihtout using the slightest bit of gold.

The Crater served as a funerary urn for an aristocratic Thessalion whose name is engraved on teh fase: Astiouneios, son of Anaxagoras, of Larissa.

330 - 320 century B.C.

Part of a Mosaic

from the floor of a triklinion of a house found at the junction of Egnatia and Antigonidon streets. It probably depicts the Hours (one has been destroyed).

The depiction of personifications relating to the cycle of time in the mosaics of wealthy houses was related to the prosperity of its owners and the abundance of their goods. The placement of this mosaic at the guests' point of entry to the triklinion enhances the symbolism.

250 - 300 century A.D.

Close up of the mosaic. All individual stones placed to create the design.

Statue of Octavian Augustus,
first emperor of Rome (27 B.C. - 14 A.D.)
He is depicted as a heroic nude, holding a scepter or spear. His facial features are difficult to discern. The youthful face and the well-groomed curls in the hair follow classical models, alluding to an athlete or hero of the 5th century B.C.
4th - 2nd century B.C.
The idealistic choice gives the statue the prestige and superiority of classical works.
It may have been sculpted in a Thessaloniki workship in the years of the emperor Tiberius (14 - 37 century A.D)