{"id":668,"date":"2017-10-28T17:31:32","date_gmt":"2017-10-28T15:31:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/?p=668"},"modified":"2017-10-29T08:00:06","modified_gmt":"2017-10-29T06:00:06","slug":"athens-the-archaeological-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/athens\/athens-the-archaeological-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"Athens: The Archaeological Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rick Steves says that the Athens Archaeological Museum is one of the best museums in the world, and our experience today could do nothing to refute that. I\u2019d certainly rank it as the best museum I\u2019ve ever visited, both in terms of the simple presentation of the exhibits and for the extraordinary breadth and depth of the cultural expanse which it covers so brilliantly. We spent the better part of a day there. We could spend the better part of a week and not take it all in. My head is still swimming.<\/p>\n

The museum covers the Cycladean cultures including Greek, Mycenaean, Cypriot, and Minoan, the Roman period, and also includes a stunning wing of Egyptian artifacts, as Egypt was a major trading partner with Cycladean cultures. Cycladean coverage begins with the Neolithic period, around 5,000 BC, when the Minoan city of Akrotiri was already a thriving trading hub. Pottery from that period clearly influenced later Hellenic civilization from the Mycenaeans onward.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, photos without flash are allowed throughout the museum. Unfortunately, that means I took way too many photos to give the remotest impression of what you might find there. If you want to look closer, I have a photo dump of the day\u2019s images which you may peruse here<\/a> if you\u2019re so inclined. No explanations there, but the images are amazing.<\/p>\n

Here are a few of my favorites.<\/p>\n

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The funerary Mask of Agamemnon, which is not actually Agamemnon. Mycenae.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Child\u2019s funeral cask with pottery found inside.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Clay figure with some of the original color intact. Greek statuary and figurines were painted with realistic colors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Earrings, Mycenae.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Vessel for mixing oil and vinegar at the dinner table.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Pottery, red figure, classical period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Exquisitely decorated ewer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Frescoes transferred from a bedroom in Akrotiri (5,000 BC) to recreate this bedroom. Swallows, goats…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Egyptian jewelry.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Egyptian funerary cask, alabaster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bronze, Heracles with a lion skin. Nemian, I presume.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Beautifully shaped pitchers. Mycenaean, I think.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Mycenaean bowl cut from a single quartz crystal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Exquisite oil lamp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Boar\u2019s tooth helmet, Mycenae.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Bronze bust of a philosopher, recovered from the wreck of the Antikythera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Caesar Augustus, bronze, Roman period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Geometric period pottery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Gold vessels, Mycenae.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Gold cups, Mycenae.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Classical period pottery.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Poseidon, bronze.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Statue of Odysseus, recovered from the wreck of the Antikythera.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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The Antikythera mechanism. Really.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Aphrodite swatting Pan with her sandal, and a young Eros. Ivory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick Steves says that the Athens Archaeological Museum is one of the best museums in the world, and our experience today could do nothing to refute that. I\u2019d certainly rank it as the best museum I\u2019ve ever visited, both in… Read moreAthens: The Archaeological Museum<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-athens","content-layout-excerpt-thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":722,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668\/revisions\/722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/greece17\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}