Petralona Anthropological Museum

LocationPetralona

Next to the present artificial entrance of the Petralona Cave (about 50 m. South), the Anthropological Museum was created at the expense of the Anthropological Society of Greece, where the findings of its excavations are housed. These finds come mainly from the cave, but also from other studies of the external area of ​​Halkidiki, as well as from various regions such as Amynteo, Ikaria, Crete, Ptolemaida, Chios and others.

The Museum is a traditional two-storey building ~ 1000m2, built with a tile roof, while on its north stone wall is represented the map of Cave along with the tourist route inside it – designed by Panos Polydropopoulos.

On the ground floor are the warehouse of the finds, the maintenance and recording workshops, as well as in the separate room the library of the Museum.

The upper floor, in addition to the Exhibition Hall, there is also a spacious decorated Anteroom, the Lecture Room (above the library) and the Office of the Directorate.

The Antelope is located in the center of the 2nd floor and features two statues of Armanthrone, one of the artefacts (Buthieraxpouliani – according to MiklosCretsi), five large frescoes, a countertop with the visitor’s book and a showcase with the publications of SA .and the Anthropological Museum.

From the frescoes of the Antelope, the largest depicts the evolution of life according to Aristotle, the evolution of the Anthropides according to ArisPoulianos, while the other three depict the interior of the Cave. The statues, mainly in natural size, were made by sculptor Angela Korovessi-Kalandidis, while the paintings by the folk painter Christos Kagaras and his son Nikos. The above artifacts, like everything else in the Petralona Cave, were created under the close supervision of Aris Poulianos, in order to meet the necessary scientific specifications.

The frescoes of the high-rise Exhibition Hall are decorated with paintings of life’s evolution, covering the last 4.5 billion years. Towards the end of the depictions the appearance of the human species and snapshots of the activities of the Petronells of the Archanes.

The approximately 2000 findings of the Exhibition Hall are hosted respectively in 370 showcases, and are divided into ten sections:

The first section (the initial 25 showcases, point 1) includes findings from the outside and pre-cave mainly seasons – Miocene (10-20 million years) of Halkidiki and Pleistocene (2-0,3 million years) of Central Macedonia.

The 2nd section (next 120 showcases, points 1-3) brings together, in a timetabling series, fossils of animals, mainly large mammals, from the Petralona Cave. This includes the representation of the stratigraphic arrangement of cave deposits.

3rd section (50 showcases, point 3-4) stone outdoor tools from different places, past times, from those of the Cave.

4th unit (70 showcases, point 4) stone tools from the Petralona Cave.

5th unit – representation of the room of “Mausoleum” (point 4), of the area found in the skull of Archangrot in 1960.

6th unit (50 showcases, point 5) bone tools from the Petralona Cave.

7th unit (25 showcases, point 6) with small vertebrate bones (lizards, turtle birds, bats, rodents) and so on. finds, such as plant seeds, fragments of fossilized wood, shingles.

8th section (2 showcases, point 6) with the traces of fire and the Macedonian prologue.

9th unit (15 showcases, point 6) sculptures of archeological skulls – representation of petralone bust in natural size and other findings.

10th section (10 showcases, point 6) outdoor stone tools from various parts of the following seasons to those of the Cave (for a more comprehensible comparison with the previous differences in technology), including Neolithic crafts (6,000-9,000 years), as well as “modern Beams and a bowl.

Petralona, ​​63200, Chalkidiki

Tel.: +30 23730 71671