Reopened in 2014 after an 8 year Restoration
The Museum is considered the best in Greece
and the best in the world as it pertains to Minoan artifacts.
The museum was created in 1883. After three major earthquakes, Nazi invasion, and various damages in WWII...and the addition of a new wing in the 1960's
The Heraklion Museum was closed to the public in 2006
not to be reopened until 2014.
The Museum now has 20 distinctive rooms.
Room I (6000 BCE)
Neolithic Fertility Goddess
Stone Jars
Miniature Pottery Items
Room II (1700 BCE)
Glazed Plaques of Minoan's Houses (aka The Town Mosaic)
Room III
Phaistos Disk
Important because this disk is the first evidence of organized written record.
To date archaeologists have yet to decipher the Minoan written language
but it is believed that this may be the first "book"
Room IV
Bull's head figurine from Knossos
The Bull figured predominately in Minoan Culture. Mythology has it that King Minos was suppose to have been given a white bull
by Poseidon, himself, to sacrifice.
Instead of sacrificing the white bull, Minos kept it and chose a lesser bull.
In his rage, Poseidon caused Minos' wife to become enamoured of the white bull and she sexually encountered it. The result of their union
The Minotaur.
Room V (1450 BCE)
Egyptian trade items
Clay Model of a House
and eight examples of the first known Linear Script
Room VI
Gold Jewelry
Room VII
Bronze Double Axes
The Vases
Room VIII
Zakros
Rock Crystal Rhytons
Bull's Head Rhytons
Rhytons (pronounced Rye-Tun)
were drinking vessels often shaped like animal heads/animals.
Pottery with Marine Motifs
Room IX
Seal Stones
Terra Cotta items from the Pisokephalo Sanctuary
Some Useful like this Oven
Some merely Ornamental
Room X
Mycenaean
Clay Figurines including
some with Lutes
or dancers
Room XII
Dorian
Weapons and Tools Mostly of Iron
Room XIII
Larnakes
Minoan Clay Coffins
Replacing Wooden Coffins
Room XIV
Frescoes from Knossos and Hagia Triadia
Room XV and XVI
More Frescoes
The Most Famous
La Parisienne
Rooms XVII-XX
Dedicated to Classic Greek Sculpture
The museum is open April–September, Monday 12–7pm Tuesday–Sunday 8am–7pm, October–March daily 8am–5pm.
EU students can receive a discounted entry.
There is air conditioning within the building.
Some of the collection cannot be photographed due to publication or another reason. There are usually signs posted nearby the restricted items.
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=5306965883850571984#editor/target=post;postID=1999546954730083191
if you want to learn more about the museum of explore in depth
Or check out this You Tube Presentation
https://youtu.be/seoe-X1Rr7I
Monday we will discover
some of the
beautiful beaches
of Crete.
Beach at Night
Heraklion Crete
