THE EPIGRAPHIC MUSEUM
The Epigraphic Museum is unique in Greece and the largest of its kind in the world. It safeguards 14,078, coming mainly from Attica, but also from other areas of the ancient Greek world. Most of them are Greek objects dating from the 8th century BC to the 5th and 6th centuries AD, a few are Latin, about forty of them are Jewish tomb inscriptions from the 16th and 17th centuries and a very few of them are Ottoman. Most inscriptions have been engraved in stone, particularly marble, and the remaining have been elaborated with clay.
The purpose of the museum is the scientific research, study, registration, protection, preservation, publication, photographic documentation and promotion of the ancient Greek inscriptions.
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.
VISITING SCHEDULE: Monday to Sunday from 08.30 to 15.45. Closed on Tuesdays.
