A prominent showcase entitled "New entries / New approaches" welcomes visitors to the museum's reception area.
It introduces them to some of our collection's most interesting new and old objects; we present items recently acquired or storeroom objects after a new approach, such as a restoration process, a new interpretation or new scientific data.
New interpretations of old finds from ancient Olynthus
We present here, for the first time, four bronze vessels, which were found in houses of the ancient city Olynthus during the excavations conducted by the American School of Classical Studies in Athens (1928-1938) and are included in the 1941 publication by the director of the excavation, Professor D.M. Robinson.
All four vessels date back to the 5th-4th c. BC. Three of them are described in the 1941 publication as a “bowl of a peculiar and not very pleasing shape”, a “goblet” and a “strainer”, respectively. However, recent research at the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki has proven that all three are censers. The fourth vessel, a libation bowl (phiale), kept in the museum's storeroom as an item “of unknown origin” was recently identified with a phiale from a house in Olynthus, included in the same publication.
In the light of the new approaches, all four vessels found in houses at Olynthus can be safely associated with the domestic cult, enlightening us about the ways Olynthians exercised individualized rituals in their houses: among other practices, they burnt incense and made libations. This new evidence is quite important since no public sanctuaries have been found in ancient Olynthus, although it is the most extensively excavated city of the classical period in Macedonia.
Short guided tours at "New acquisitions / New approaches" will be regularly held by the Archaeologists of the museum.
