The Archaeological Museum of Komotini is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

on Symenonidi Street in

Komotini Komotini ( el, Κομοτηνή, tr, Gümülcine, bg, Комотини) is a city in the region of East Macedonia and Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Rhodope. It was the administrative centre of the Rhodope-Evros super-p ...

in Greece. The museum was designed by

Aris Konstantinidis Aris Konstantinidis (; 4 March 1913 – 18 September 1993) was a Greek modernist architect. Aris Konstantinidis was born in Athens and studied architecture at the Technical University of Munich from 1931 to 1936, where he came into contact wi ...

, an architect, and was commissioned in 1976. The exhibits on display are from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

to the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

period, from the excavations of the

Thracia Thracia or Thrace ( ''Thrakē'') is the ancient name given to the southeastern Balkan region, the land inhabited by the Thracians. Thrace was ruled by the Odrysian kingdom during the Classical and Hellenistic eras, and briefly by the Greek D ...

n archaeological sites, and reveal much about the prehistory and history of the Aegean Thrace and Komotini. The museum also has exhibits of folklore art, agriculture operations and basket making.

Features

The museum structure is prominent in Komotini for its architectural elegance. The exhibits cover the Neolithic and

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

sites of colonies of Greece in the remote northern Aegean,

Greek art Greek art began in the Cycladic and Minoan civilization, and gave birth to Western classical art in the subsequent Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods (with further developments during the Hellenistic Period). It absorbed influences of E ...

, holy sites, Roman hamlets and artifacts of funeraries. The collections have informative display boards with the history of Thrace. Artefacts include Roman coins, clay statuette, gilded wreaths, and ceramics of the

period. A detailed map showing the location of the archaeological sites in Thrace and Macedonia are also provided to the visitors. There is also a clay figurine from Abdera dated to early 200 BC, although the gilded bust of

Septimius Severus Lucius Septimius Severus (; 11 April 145 – 4 February 211) was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna (present-day Al-Khums, Libya) in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the customary suc ...

(193–211 AD) is cited to be the most impressive exhibit in the museum. Another interesting exhibit in the museum is a grave stele with images marked on both its faces, made from Thacian marble. It was found at ancient

Dikaia Dikaia ( el, Δίκαια, ) is a village in the northern part of the Evros regional unit in Greece. Dikaia was the seat of the former municipality of Trigono, and is part of the municipality Orestiada since 2011. In 2011 its population was 561 ...

in 1927, and is an example of late Ionian art of the

Late Archaic Late may refer to: * LATE, an acronym which could stand for: ** Limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy, a proposed form of dementia ** Local-authority trading enterprise, a New Zealand business law ** Local average treatment effect, ...

period dated to 300 BC. This slab is without a crown and has decorations of the Lesbian cymatium in its top portion. An image of a young person, adorned with a himation, with hair tied and dropping to the nape, is depicted in the front portion of the stele. The back face of the stele displays an attendant carrying a stool and a dog. Wall text relating to the exhibits is in English.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Authority control

Buildings and structures in Komotini Museums established in 1976 1976 establishments in Greece