Museum of Anthropology

The Museum of Anthropology of the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens was founded in 1886, and it is one of the earliest museums in Europe. Its collections are quite exceptional and some of them rare. It is open to the public and many schools visits yearly.

The main collection body includes series of skeletal material from all over Greece, and it represents a population range from all the chronological and cultural periods of the ancient Greek world.

The prehistoric collections refer to various phases of Greek and European Prehistory, including significant authentic material, which represent the cultural evolution of man, mainly in the Greek area.

The paleo-anthropological museum collections concern an amount of anthropological replica remains from all over the world, covering all eras of the five million year human evolution (=Homo) and the phylogenetic history of Hominids (=Hominidae).

Image 1:  Panoramic View of the Exhibition concerning the Paleoathropological findings from Mani Peninsula

Moreover, among the collections there are three rare Egyptian mummies. After careful anthropological examination from experts, these mummies are of exquisite archaeological, museological, as well as educational and research value.

Last but not least, the museum possesses some very interesting ethnological collections of exhibits, from Africa, Asia and the Americas, such as authentic Samurai costumes of Japanese warriors.

Image 2: Human Fossils From Apidima Mani, Greece

As a unit of the University, it implements both educational and research activities. It has constituted the most important center for the development of Anthropology in Greece, as well as in Europe. The Hellenic Anthropological Society (1924) and Professor Ioannis Koumaris have also contributed significantly to the development and communication of the science of anthropology. The main part of the Anthropological Museum scientific collections consists of skeletal series that cover all periods of the ancient Greek world. These collections have been the subject of systematic anthropological studies conducted by important Greek and foreign anthropologists, who have expressed basic views concerning the ethnogenesis, the shaping and the evolution of the Helladic population. Thanks to the Anthropological Museum’s studies which are mainly conducted in various caves, numerous human fossils have been discovered (many of which are of great importance concerning the presence and evolution of man in the European region), as well as many, highly important, palaeontological and cultural fossils from the Palaeolithic period.

Image 3:  Skulls from Neolithic sites in Greece (Mitilini, Arcadia, Kozani) 

Contact

Director: Associate Professor Mrs Mirsini Kouloukoussa, tel. (+30) 2107462351, e-mail: mkoulouk[at]med.uoa[dot]gr

Secretariat: Anna Orgeta, tel: (+30) 210 7462358-60, e-mail: aorgeta[at]med.uoa[dot]gr

Address: School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, M. Asias 75, Goudi, 11527 Athens.

Tel: (+30) 210-746 2358-9

Fax: (+30) 210-746 2359

Website: http://www.anthropologymuseum.med.uoa.gr/

E-mail: anthropology-museum(at)med.uoa.gr

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