- Examples of early Attic inscriptions (Room 11)
This display includes, among other items, the earliest stone inscription from the Acropolis, examples of early Greek writing (from right to left and boustrofedon - alternating right to left and left to right, like an ox plowing a field), funerary stelai, lists of men killed in battle, epigrams from public funerary monuments and inscribed bases of Archa?c statues from the Acropolis, many of which preserve the names of the sculptors, such as Onatas or Archermos.
- Inscriptions that are representative of various categories and periods (Room 9)
The display includes decrees, laws, sacred laws, votive, honorary and funerary inscriptions, letters, narratives and inscriptions relevant to the theatre. Among the most important in this unit is the votive altar of Peisistratos the Younger, which is mentioned by Thucidides, the sacred law of the Hekatompedos, a copy of the famous 409/8 BC law of Draco, a stele with the specifications for the construction of the Philon arsenal, the earliest Athenian decree concerning the installation of allottees at Salamis (510-500 BC), and the long letter addressed by the emperor Marcus Aurelius to the Athenians, in which he settles legal disputes. Inscriptions from outside Attica, such as the famous decree of Themistocles about the confrontation of the Persian invasion of 480 BC, are displayed in the same room.
- Decrees, alliance treaties, economic accounts (Room 1)
This display includes, among other items, the tax lists of the First Athenian Alliance (fifth century BC), lists of votive offerings from the Acropolis such as the inscriptions concerning the delivery and reception of sacred objects of the goddess Athena by the treasurers, and the stele with the economic accounts for the construction of Athena's chrysselephantine statue by Pheidias.
- Funerary monuments (internal and external courtyards)
These monuments were used as grave markers and their inscriptions commemorate the deceased. They include stelai with palmette-shaped crowning members and relief rosettes, small columns, marble lekythoi and table-shaped monuments.
- Inscriptions of special historical or aesthetic value (lobby, Room 2)
This display includes important inscriptions of various types, such as fragments of Archa?c perirrantiria (vessels for lustral water), bases of votive offerings mainly from the Acropolis, the stele of the Second Athenian Alliance of 388/7 BC, and the fourth-third century BC abacus from Salamis. |