Thessaloníki – Archaeological Museum

Saturday 12 June started as a ‘chores on board’ day. Nicky took on the washer woman task so that we had clean clothes to wear, whilst I scrubbed the decks and then had a go at catching up on some of the blog writing. We had a late lunch and then put on our tourist hats again. The challenge for the day was the Archaeological Museum which fortunately is open daily from 8am to 8pm.

The ancient world did things on a grand scale. At the entrance to the museum is a large and very ornate sarcophagus and next to it a 4^th century BC clay pithos marked with the inscription “for maturing a very strong wine”. It certainly seemed large enough to satisfy the needs of even the grandest of parties.

There were so many things in the museum, so I’ve tried to capture just a few that caught my eye.

Models, photographs and artist’s impressions were used in abundance to help visualise what had been found at the archaeological sites.

Country house from Asprovalta   

For example, an aerial photograph of the excavation of a country house at Asprovalta was matched with drawings of the site and a model. The house had been built in the late 4^th century BC and abandoned around the middle of the 3^rd century BC.

Country house from Lete   

Similarly, a country house from Lete, built in the middle of the 2^nd century AD and then abandoned in the early 5^th century AD, was easy to comprehend from the drawings and model.

The largest of these houses would have been decorated with expensive mosaics. We saw examples from 200-250AD showing the arrival of Dionysus and his followers in Naxos and the discovery of Ariadne (L); Zeus depicted as an eagle snatching Ganymedes (R); whilst the larger centre mosaic showed the rape of Daphne by Apollo. All, apparently, were popular themes for mosaics.

Weapons were displayed but here too there were some unusual models. In particular, I was captivated by a model of two 200-220AD triremes lashed together to form a platform for a high archery tower. Inside the front of the tower was a catapult firing large arrows whilst behind it were 2 catapults to hurl rocks. Now, that would certainly give your army a warfighting advantage!

Artefacts from some of the city’s burial sites were on display including some beautifully painted sarcophagi. The ancients believed that whatever was buried with the individual’s remains would be available to them in the afterlife. That has provided many treasures for the archaeologists to examine but has also given a fascinating insight into how skilled they were in making beautiful objects.

Crater and ornate perfume bottles 

The wealthiest citizens were buried in mausoleums and we saw a marble door from one of these, complete with bronze spikes, hinges and handles.  Gold jewellery, money, bronze helmets, perfume bottles and other containers were on displayed. If the body had been cremated then the bones were placed in a vase, often the individual’s favourite crater (used for mixing water and wine).

Gold jewellery, money, bronze helmets and vessels from graves   

The octagon in Emperor Garius’ palace   

There were also plans and computer generated reconstructions of the octagon in Emperor Galerius’ palace……

……..as well as ornately carved arches from the odeon in the agora.

Las Incantadas, “The enchanted ones”, were statues that had been located in the southwest of the Roman agora that we had visited a few days previously. The statues were sold to the French in 1864 by the city’s Turkish governor and are now displayed in the Louvre [Ed: Sound familar?]. The 18^th century engravings on the left and the 17^th century painting on the right showing the statues in place at that time, as well as a few fragments of the statues, are all that are on display in Thessaloníki’s museum.

Archaic Temple of Thessaloníki   

Towards the end of the museum tour we saw some large pieces of the Archaic Temple of Thessaloníki, albeit with shrunken pillars because the museum roof isn’t high enough to show one at full height. Only a small triangular fragment of the temple has been excavated because the rest is still underneath the adjoining tower blocks. It makes you wonder what else is hidden below the current city buildings.

Fragments of the Derveni Papyrus   

One of the most interesting exhibits are the pieces of the Derveni Papyrus. These innocuous looking fragments are actually so rare that they have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage items. Normally ancient papyrus does not survive in Greece because the climate is too damp. However, this papyrus had been burnt and it is the charcoaled remains with the writing on it still visible that we saw.

After all we had seen in the city over the previous couple of days, the few hours we spent in the archaeological museum really helped to set it all in context. It was a great way to round off our tour of the ancient sites of the city before we headed off to the wider area in search of royal tombs and incredible monasteries. More prosaically, though, the few hours away from BV gave enough time for the laundry to dry and we even got back to rescue it before an evening thunderstorm hit!

Thessaloníki, Greece