Archaeological Excavations and Exhibits
Syntagma Metro Station Archaeological Collection
During the construction of the metro tunnels, numerous artefacts of archaeological interest were discovered. Their discovery was brought about as a result of what is known as salvage archaeology, this is archaeology that comes into play not because of natural decay but due to the artefacts' imminent destruction by the systematic excavation process. Teams of archaeologists worked ahead of, then alongside, engineers for a total of 6 years. They protected and recorded the archaeological evidence that was uncovered which included ancient streets, houses, cemeteries, sanctuaries, public workshops, foundry pits, kilns, aqueducts, wells, cisterns, drains and sewage tunnels. Together this allowed a new insight into the topography of the city in ancient times. Never before has such a rapid development of infrastructure been accompanied hand-in-hand with the attentive study and preservation of archaeological data.
Exhibitions of ancient artefacts and/or their replicas can be found at various metro stations, such as those of Monastiraki and Syntagma.
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