DESCRIPTION
HISTORY
EXHIBITIONS
INFORMATION
PHOTOGALLERY
 
 
 
Exhibitions
| Description | | Exhibits |

The permanent exhibition of the Epigraphical Museum
 
Entrance-hall of the Museum
The inscriptions in the permanent collection of the Epigraphical Museum are, mostly, Greek and come mainly from Attica. A small number (about 40) of Latin and Hebrew funerary inscriptions of the sixteenth-seventeenth centuries come from Mystra. Most of the inscriptions (98%) are carved on stone or marble, but there are also stamped amphora handles and inscribed clay roof-tiles. Chronologically, the inscriptions range from the eighth century BC to the Late Roman period, with the exception of a few examples which date to the Byzantine and Modern era.

The display in the lobby and in the more recent rooms (9 and 10) follows contemporary museological standards and aesthetic considerations, and has mainly an educational character. In the other rooms, the exhibits were grouped according to the shape and size of the stone blocks, and the type and contents of the inscription. The most important examples on account of their contents (honorary decrees, alliance treaties, lists, economic accounts etc) are displayed in the lobby and in rooms 1 and 2, which are open to the public.

The visitor has at their disposition the information summary provided by the bilingual (Greek and English) exhibit panels and the special volumes containing the ancient texts of those inscriptions displayed in the new rooms (9 and 10). Bibliographical references for the other inscriptions are available on their labels, so that the visitor can look up the relevant publication in the museum's library. The computer in the lobby provides general information on the history of Greek writing.
  
 
Author
M. Tsouli, archaeologist
  
 

Exhibition Units
 
- 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.
 
 

Open:
Winter: From the 1st of November until the 31 of March 2010:
8:30-15:00
Other Photographs of the exhibition
Hall II of the Museum with the research tables of the incriptions
View of hall XI with incriptions of the 8th - 5th century BC
View of hall XI
View of hall IX