The exhibition is developed on the ground floor and the first floor of the building. In the first part, rich visual material informs visitors about the history of the city.
The objects are presented in three thematic sections: public life, private life and burial customs. The exhibition covers the period from the 7th century BC to the 13th century AD. The finds from the period of prosperity of the city are greater in number.
Public Life Section
Our knowledge of the religious life of the Abderites is based on texts by ancient writers and inscriptions, figurines, cult vessels, reliefs and coins. Reliefs depicting Cybele and the hero Avlonitis, inscriptions mentioning Zeus Hypsistos, Zeus Eleutherios, Dionysus and Abderus, as well as figurines of gods and votive offerings from the sanctuary of Demeter and Kore, provide us with insights into private and public worship.
Honorary decrees praising private individuals for their contributions to the city, inscriptions with laws, coins, state measures, weights and sealings, as well as objects which were parts of weapons contribute to the picture we have of the public life of the ancient Abderites and the inhabitants of Byzantine Polystylon.
Private Life Section
Occupational activities of the Abderites, such as animal husbandry, fishing, or more specialised occupations, such as medicine, have been identified from finds such as utensils and tools used for their practice.
The existence of small-scale industries and workshops is certain. Moulds of vessels, figurines and coins, seals with decorative motifs and stamped roof tiles have been found.
Wine transport amphorae are also on display, indicating trade contacts with inhabitants of remote areas. Parts of the superstructure of buildings, a mosaic floor, part of a fresco, a capital and a closure slab of an episcopal throne from the Episcopal church in Polystylon reflect the building activity.
Clay vessels dominated the domestic life of Abdera. They were used daily for preparing and consuming food or for special occasions, such as transporting and using perfumes. The Abderites mainly used vessels of their own production, e.g. a particular type of bowl with rayed decoration. Inside the houses, lamps were essential for lighting, while the whorls and loom weights testify to women’s weaving activity.
We draw information about the style of clothes, the way they were worn and the type of hairstyles of men and women from the figurines and the clothing and hairstyle accessories (brooches and pins).
Women and men used perfume jars, jewellery cases, mirrors, strigils, tweezers, and small knives for grooming. They complemented their clothing with a variety of jewellery, some of which was made of fine and some of cheap materials.
A series of toys, jewellery, figurines and utilitarian objects, such as feeding bottles, styli (pens) and inkwells, give us an insight into the daily life of children inside and outside the house.
Burial Customs Section
A red-figured Attic hydria which was used as an urn and a red-figured pelike introduce us into the hall with finds from the cemeteries.
Around the walls of the hall there are showcases with funerary assemblages and grave markers.
In the central part of the hall, 8th and 7th century BC vessels used for Clazomenian interments, a pithos burial of a man (4th century BC), a clay relief sarcophagus (5th century BC), two plain clay children’s sarcophagi (4th century BC), and two burial representations in cist graves of a woman, dating to the 4th century BC, and of a man, dating to the 2nd century BC, are exhibited.
