Archeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos

The Archeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos was created in order to exhibit finds from eastern Crete, which, until then, used to be carried to the Museum of Heraklion. The exhibition covers a long period of time from the Neolithic times to the end of the Greco-Roman period.

The visitor can watch the development of the art of the area over time through representative specimens of various styles and times. The visitor can watch the development of the art of the area over time, through representative speciments of various styles and times. The funeral gifts from the early Minoan cemetery of Agia Photia near Siteia (3.000-2.300 π.Χ.) in the first chamber and the findings from the Palace of Malia brought to light by the excavations of the French School of Archeology in the fourth chamber are considered to be the largest and most important sets. The most famous object is the rhyton vessel known as "the goddess of Myrtos".

The visitor walks to the left clockwise and sees the exhibits by excavation sets and chronological order. In the first room are exhibited the funeral gifts found in 1971 in the seaside cemetery of Agia Photia. This cemetery, the largest in number of graves of prehistoric Crete and one of the largest in Greece, had at least 260 graves with over 1.600 vessels, some copper dagger and a lot of obsidian blades (3.000-2.300 B.C.). The vessels, made without a ceramics wheel in various shapes testify relations and influences both inside Crete and with the Cyclades. The Cycladic influences in particular are so strong that we can speak of a Cretan-Cycladic culture.

In the second room is exhibited another remarkable newer collection of ceramics from the important early Minoan settlement Fournou Koryfi near the village Myrtos of Ierapetra. The most famous object of the Museum, "the goddess of Myrtos" is in this collection. It is an exquisite rhyton vessel (24th early Minoan period) in the form of a goddess with a very small head on a long, thin neck and a bell-shaped body. With the right hand she holds - hugging it at the same time with her left arm - a small beak-mouthed jug, the only exit point of fluid from inside the vessel.