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New Pella Archaeological Museum inaugurated

Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Geroulanos inaugurated the new Archaeological Museum of Pella on Friday and stressed that landscaping work on the area around the museum will begin soon.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_01Geroulanos also said that the ministry has incorporated the 1.6 million euros project under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF).

New Pella Archaeological Museum_02The original structure was built in 1960 to house the excavated finds in the nearby archaeological site, and operated as an archaeological museum since 1973.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_03The new state-of-the-art museum covers an area of 6,000 square meters and is situated in the north-eastern section of the archaeological site.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_04 The museum contains prehistoric finds and exhibits describing the layout of the ancient city, finds from the agora, the sanctuaries, and the cemetery, and also six mosaic floors from the archaeological site.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_05The exhibits include hydrias, mosaic floors, statues and statuettes, heads of statues, figurines, vases, and hoards of silver coins of the Macedonian and Hellenistic periods, all from excavations in the wider area of Pella.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_06 Among the most important exhibits are six mosaics from houses (depicting Dionysus riding a panther, a lion-hunt, a griffin attacking a deer, a pair of centaurs, and vegetal ornaments), an interior wall of a house decorated with coloured plaster in the first Pompeian style (2nd century BC), a marble portrait head of Alexander the Great and a marble statuette of Alexander as Pan of the Hellenistic period, a small bronze statue of Poseidon attributed to the sculptor Lysippos, also of the Hellenistic period, hoards of silver coins of the Macedonian kings (5th century BC) and of the Hellenistic period, a red-figure hydria decorated with a representation of Poseidon’s duel with Athena, dated to the late fifth or early fourth century BC, and a headless statue of a youth on horseback.

New Pella Archaeological Museum_07There are also several information panels consisting of topographical and architectural plans and drawings and photographs of the excavations, as well as copies and casts of figurines and vases.

Source: ANA [September 12, 2010]