Archaeological Museum of Eleftherna
The Museum of Ancient Eleftherna is the first museum inside an archaeological site in Crete, as it is located next to the ancient city of Eleftherna. The three halls of the museum host the whole history of Eleftherna from 3000 BC to 1300 AD with everyday objects and artworks.
The largest Hall A includes exhibits selected for a short presentation of the public, political, religious, social and private life of Eleftherna, but also objects imported from other Cretan cities and regions such as Attica, the Peloponnese, the Cyclades, the islands of the eastern Aegean, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Phoenicia and generally Syropalestinian coast, Egypt. It hosts a bronze shield that was found in the grave of the "warriors" and is dated between 830-820 BC and 730-720 BC. Next, copies of the shield are used for educational purposes, allowing visually impaired people to "read" through palpation.
Hall B houses the religious and devotional life in Eleftherna, from the Early Iron Age to the Byzantine period. It also presents the Monument 4A-memorial-shrine, which is interpreted as a cenotaph, becoming one of the first monuments dedicated to the "unknown" soldier in world history. The room houses one of the most important findings of the Necropolis of Orthi Petra, the "Lady of Eleftherna", which is related to the dedalic statue "Lady of Oser" in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Hall C is dedicated to the necropolis of Eleftherna. Here are exhibited only finds from excavations in the necropolis of Orthi Petra, as in this are illustrated descriptions of the Homeric world, such as the ritual of burial fire (burning), such that the funerary pyre of Patroclus described in the Iliad (rhapsody y). Here is exposed the unique funerary pyre with the dead. In the same room visitors meet the aristocrat priestesses of Eleftherna with all their brilliant and exquisite jewelry and glass, earthenware, clay and bronze vases, figurines etc.
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