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The Kerameikos Archaeological Museum is located in
File:1015 - Keramikos Museum, Athens - Cinerary urn amphora, 10th century BC - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, N.jpg, 10th century BC cinerary urn amphora
File:KAMA Black-figure white-ground lekythoi of Beldam workshop.jpg, Black-figure white-ground lekythoi
File:1201 - Keramikos Museum, Athens - Funerary lekythos - Photo by Giovanni Dall'Orto, Nov 12 2009.jpg, White-ground Lekythos
File:Grave relief of Dexileos, son of Lysanias, of Thorikos (Ca. 390 BC) (4454389225).jpg,
The Kerameikos Archaeological Museum is located in Kerameikos
Kerameikos (, ) also known by its Latinized form Ceramicus, is an area of Athens, Greece, located to the northwest of the Acropolis, which includes an extensive area both within and outside the ancient city walls, on both sides of the Dipylon ...
, Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
, Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
and was built in 1937. It houses many important early Geometric art
Geometric art is a phase of Greek art, characterized largely by geometric motifs in vase painting, that flourished towards the end of the Greek Dark Ages, . Its center was in Athens, and from there the style spread among the trading cities of the ...
pieces that date as far back as 860 BC. It was expanded in the 1960s by the Boehringer brothers of Boehringer Ingelheim
C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Co. is the parent company of the Boehringer Ingelheim group, which was founded in 1885 by Albert Boehringer in Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. As of 2018, Boehringer Ingelheim is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical ...
fame. Its official address is Ermou, Athens 125, Greece.
History
In 1863, archaeologists first started housing pottery and other artifacts found in the dig site in a small, makeshift outpost. It was an exhibit for the largerGerman Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute (german: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, ''DAI'') is a research institute in the field of archaeology (and other related fields). The DAI is a "federal agency" under the Federal Foreign Office of Germany ...
until the official Museum was built in 1937, by H. Johannes. It was funded by Gustav Oberlander, a Prussian entrepreneur. The museum is housed directly in the area of Kerameikos among the famous archaeological site. The Boehringer brothers funded the expansion of the museum. It is a small, open-air museum with only four rooms on a single floor, but it houses many important funerary works as well as larger sculptures. Inside of the museum there is a garden area with olive trees and laurels.
Exhibits
Three of the rooms house artifacts found in the Kerameikos necropolis, the other room houses sculptures found from all archaeological eras. Many of the artifacts found in Kerameikos are funerary or otherwise death-related and reflect the Athenian attitudes towards the afterlife. As such, many of the sculptures exhibited here are urns,lekythoi
A lekythos (plural lekythoi) is a type of ancient Greek vessel used for storing oil (Greek λήκυθος), especially olive oil. It has a narrow body and one handle attached to the neck of the vessel, and is thus a narrow type of jug, with no pou ...
, grave reliefs, stelae
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
, in addition to jewelry, etc. Some of the most notable findings are from the offerings to plague victims of the Plague of Athens
The Plague of Athens ( grc, Λοιμὸς τῶν Ἀθηνῶν}, ) was an epidemic that devastated the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year (430 BC) of the Peloponnesian War when an Athenian victory still seemed within r ...
. There are works from the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
, and Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...
periods.
Grave Stele of Dexileos
The Grave Stele of Dexileos, is the stele of the tomb of an Athenian cavalryman named Dexileos ( Greek: Δεξίλεως) who died in the Corinthian War against Sparta in 394 BC. The stele is attributed to “The Dexileos Sculptor”. Its creation ...
, son of Lysanias of Thorikos (c. 390 BC)
File:Bull from the grave enclosure of Dionysios of Kollytos, near the Way of the Tombs (345-350 BC) (4455298382).jpg, Dionysios of Kollitos bull
Stolen artefacts
In 1982, a black-figure lekythos was stolen from the archaeological museum.See also
*Boxer Stele Fragment from Kerameikos
This marble fragment of a funerary stele depicting a boxer is dated at circa 540 BC. The individual's depiction as a boxer is apparent in his broken nose, cauliflower ear, and the strapped wrist that he holds aloft – these straps were used by th ...
* Kerameikos steles
References
* * * http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/1/gh151.jsp?obj_id=3443 *External links
{{Authority control Archaeological museums in Athens Museums established in 1937 1937 establishments in Greece Kerameikos