When divers found a lump of green, crusty metal on the seabed, who knew that it would turn out to be one of the most amazing inventions of the ancient world!

Imagine you're a farmer in ancient Greece. After a landslide, you find a thigh bone as tall as you are. What would you think it was?

Ned Kelly vs an ancient Spartan hoplite. Whose armour would you prefer to fight in?

At Brauron, girls didn't just worship Artemis. They put on bear masks and became her for a season.

Find out how one woman’s interest revolutionised our understanding of women’s hair in Ancient Rome!

Roman coins were a lot like modern day newspapers. Learn how to ‘read’ an ancient Roman coin and discover what it reveals about historical events. Gold Augustus (Octavian) coin. Minted 27BCE. Image via the British Museum Coins in ancient Rome were, in some ways, similar to modern-day newspapers. The obverse (front) of the coin often depicted the head of the current emperor while the image on the reverse (back) was often used by the emperor to promote important information abo

Discover the shadowy caves through which the ancient Greeks entered the Underworld and sought prophecies from the dead!

Ancient Roman pottery stamps help archaeologists figure out who the product was made by, where it was produced, and who purchased it. Example of an ancient Roman pottery stamp fearing the name of the potter Camurius. Image courtesy of British Museum DISCOVER Just like the bowl from which you might have eaten your cereal this morning, ancient Roman pottery often featured stamps which tell us about the person who crafted the ceramic. Such m

Discover one of the most ancient forms of armour, supposedly used by the ancient Greeks in the time of the Trojan War! Boar-tusk helmet dating from the 14–13th Century BCE, currently in the National Archaeology Museum of Athens. Image via Wikimedia Commons. When we think of ancient Greek armour, we usually think of flashing bronze helmets with majestic horsehair crests. But did you know that in Greece, between 1600 BCE and 900 BCE, it was common to see not horse hair crests o

Discover one of the most important historical sources that historians have to understand and preserve the ancient Greek language - medieval manuscripts! Manuscript of the Gospel of Luke, 12th century CE. Benaki Museum, Athens. In medieval times, books had to be copied out by hand, one letter at a time. Can you imagine how long it took to copy out an entire book!? This work was usually left to monks in monasteries, and they took their work very seriously. We are quite lucky fo

In this month’s Discover and Create, we touch upon the importance of fine pottery to the ancient Greeks. At the Hellenic Museum, we have many incredible examples of illustrated pots. Discover one particular pot below — the Eros krater! Eros krater, previously on display in the Death and Desire exhibition at the Hellenic Museum, Melbourne. What does the shape of this vessel suggest about what it was used for? In ancient Greece a krater was used for mixing wine and water. It wa

What exactly are frankincense and myrrh, and why would the three kings gift them to baby Jesus? What is an epigonation, and how do you write 1696 in ancient Greek? The Three Kings kneel before baby Christ in a nativity scene on a 17th Century Epigonation (1696), Benaki Museum. The object above is an epigonation, dated to the year 1696, which you can see written at the end of the border text as 'ΑΧϘϚ'. (For those Hellenes reading this, the last two letters are not part of the

Many objects from Egypt have survived the centuries and ended up in museums around the world. This month, we look at this toy horse of a child who lived nearly 1500 years ago! Can you guess why this toy horse, which dates back to 400–700 CE (during the Byzantine Empire), has a hole through its nose? Not unlike some children's toys today, it was made so that it could be dragged along on a string! However, unlike the materials modern toys are often made from, this toy was carve

This month, let’s take a look at a head of Paris, the prince of Troy! Made during the time of Roman control over Greece, he is shown here wearing a shepherd’s hat. Why? Let’s find out together! Before Paris was born, his mother Hecuba, the queen of Troy, had a dream she gave birth to a flaming torch. The prophet of Troy told her the meaning of this dream: her son would cause the downfall and collapse of the city of Troy. Hecuba and her husband, Priam, were told to kill their

Avast ye! Welcome to the final instalment of our Greeks and Galleys series, where we've been exploring the histories and adventures of Greek ships and their crews from ancient times to today. This month, we’ll learn about one of the world's oldest shipwrecks, the 3300 year-young Uluburun wreck. Find out about its cargo and origins, then make your own time capsule with this month's Create activity! A diver exploring the incredibly well-preserved Uluburun shipwreck. Image via..

The Uluburun wreck (discussed in this month's Discover and Create blog) was littered with hundreds of copper ingots - metal blocks like in the image below. Why would Bronze Age sailors have carried so many of these blocks with them? Let's find out! Over 300 of these copper ingots were found stacked in rows at the bottom of the Uluburun ship, each one weighing nearly 30 kilograms. That makes a total of 9,000 kilograms, which can't have been much help when the ship started sink

Find out about Dionysus' marriage to Ariadne in our profile about a beautifully illustrated ancient Greek mixing pot, over 2400 years old! In the collection of the Benaki Museum is a pot called a calyx crater (meaning “flower bud mixing-pot,” named after the pot’s shape). It is magnificently illustrated with the marriage of Dionysus and Ariadne. The woman on the left is Ariadne. She was the princess of Crete, but she betrayed her father, King Minos, when she fell in love with

All hands on deck! Get ready for this blazing, red-hot edition of our Greeks and Galleys series, where we’re exploring the histories and adventures of Greek ships and their crews from ancient times to today. This month, we’ll be looking at how the Byzantine Greeks terrorised their enemies and set the ocean alight with their most gruesome and destructive weapon to date, Greek fire! "The Roman fleet burn the opposite fleet down" – 12th century illustration from the Madrid Skyli

Discover how the ancients lit their homes with our illuminating profile of the Benaki Museum’s Byzantine-era oil lamp, previously at the Hellenic Museum. This lamp tells a story that unites the Greek, Roman and Egyptian worlds around a single flame! In the collection of the Benaki Museum, there is an oil lamp dating from the 4–5th centuries CE – over 1500 years ago! This lamp comes to us from Egypt, at a time when the Roman empire was in control of the territory. Previously,

In our Greeks and Galleys series, we're exploring famous Greek ships and their captains – and this week, we’re jumping back to the ancient world with Athenian ship Paralus. Sacred Ships The Paralus was part of a special group of sacred ships in ancient Athens. These were ships used for religious purposes. They could be decked out in astonishing decorations, and lined up in religious processions that took place in rivers and at sea! Most sacred ships were triremes. Triremes we