The Neolithic Collection, which forms part of the Collection of Prehistoric Antiquities, comprises the earliest exhibits in the museum. These come from settlements and cemeteries of mainland Greece and the Aegean islands and date to the Neolithic period and the Early and Middle Bronze Age, that is the pre-Mycenean periods. They include clay and stone vessels, figurines and tools which date from c. 6800 BC to c. 1600 BC, as well as some very important hoards of precious objects from the north-east ...

Objects of the Late Bronze Age constitute the greatest part of the Mycenaean collection. These come mainly from large centres of the Argolid, especially Mycenae, but also from Messenia, Lakonia and Attika. They were found mostly in graves and date from 1600 to 1100 BC. The precious grave gifts from the royal graves excavated by H. Schliemann at Mycenae at the end of the nineteenth century, are especially amazing.
The display occupies the large central room of the museum's ground floor (Room ...

The Cycladic Collection reveals the civilization that flourished in the Cycladic islands during the Bronze Age (third-second millennia BC). The development of seafaring, metallurgy and figural sculpture are portrayed. The collection mainly comprises the grave gifts and other finds discovered during the early excavations of Ch. Tsountas and K. Stephanou in various islands, and during the excavations conducted by the British School at Athens at the important prehistoric settlement at Phylakopi on the ...

This display contains important finds from the settlement of Akrotiri in Thera, which was destroyed by the sixteenth-century BC volcanic eruption there. Akrotiri was one of the largest centres of the prehistoric Aegean, under the Minoan influence, as indicated mainly through the decorative motives of pottery, the art of frescoes and the adoption of Linear A script.
This display highlights Akrotiri's relations with Minoan Crete, which was at the peak of its floruit during this period, and mainland ...

The Sculpture Collection of the National Archaeological Museum is considered to be one of the most important in the world. The main aim of the display is to present the development of Greek sculpture from the origins of large-scale sculpture (seventh century BC) to the Late Roman period (fourth century AD). The exhibits are unique works of art from mainland Greece and the Aegean islands: statues, reliefs (funerary, votive, and legal), architectural groups, sarcophagi, busts, altars, statues of animals, ...

The museum's Vase and Minor Objects Collection, which covers the evolution of ancient Greek pottery from the eleventh century BC to the Roman period, is one of the richest in the world. The quantity and quality of the Geometric, early Black-Figure and fourth-century Red-Figure vases is unparalleled. The collection comprises mainly Attic vases, but also representative examples from provincial workshops, which influenced or were influenced by Attic pottery. The display also includes terracotta figurines ...

The National Archaeological Museum owns a most remarkable and rich collection of bronze artefacts, which constitutes a distinct permanent collection since 1893. This collection comprises figurines and minor objects, as well as large original bronze statues, such as the Artemision Zeus or Poseidon, the Artemision Jockey, the Antikythera Youth and the Marathon boy. These large metal sculptures are displayed with the Sculpture Collection in order to provide a fuller image of the development of large-scale ...

The Egyptian and Near Eastern Antiquities Collection is unique in Greece, and is one of the most impressive collections of its kind in the world because of the rarity and importance of the exhibits, the finest of which have been on display since 1994. These come mainly from two large donations by Greek expatriates in Egypt: the 1880-1885 donations of Ioannis Dimitriou from Lemnos, who lived in Alexandria, and the 1904 donation by Alexandros Rostovitch from Cairo.
The selection and presentation ...

The Stathatos Collection comprises some 970 objects which cover all the periods of Greek civilization, from prehistory (fifth millennium BC) to modern times (eighteenth century). It was donated to the Greek state by Eleni Stathatou in 1957, and is currently a part of the Vase and Minor Objects Collection of the National Archaeological Museum.
The collection is displayed in Room 42 of the museum's ground floor. It contains ornate gold and silver jewelry, clay and silver vessels, sculptures and ...

The National Archaeological Museum will present a temporary exhibition on women in antiquity as part of the celebrations planned for 2009, anniversary year for the National Archaeological Museum (120 years from the inauguration of the Patission building, 180 years from the establishment of the National Archaeological Museum). The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, and has already been presented at Onassis Cultural Center, New York (December ...