RD Milns Antiquities Museum

The RD Milns Antiquities Museum focuses on Classical and Mediterranean antiquities. The Museum’s collection comprises some 5900 individual artifacts from the ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian civilizations.

A Tour of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum

• Lekythos with Woman
• Gravestone for Theophile
• Figurine of a Dancer
• Fish Plate

Highlights of the RD Milns Antiquities Museum

• Lekythos with Woman
  • This small Red-Figure Lekythos or oil flask is decorated with a domestic scene showing a Woman next to a chair holding a lidded bowl over the top of a basket that is placed on the ground line. This 2,500-year-old pottery piece was used as a container for oil or perfume oil, for domestic or funerary purposes. The woman is shown in profile, wearing a chiton edged with black lines and has a red fillet in her black hair.
• Gravestone for Theophile
  • This Gravestone for Theophile was found on the Piraeus Necropolis in Athens in 1805. These gravestones are also called a funerary stele. This stele has been broken, and only the lower part of a marble gravestone has been found, showing a woman seated on a chair saying farewell to a standing figure before her. Beneath the relief scene is an inscription in ancient Greek that reads: ‘Records of your virtue, Theophile, will never pass unnoticed, modest and excellent and industrious, possessing every virtue.’
• Figurine of a Dancer
  • This 2,000-year-old “Figurine of a Dancer” was probably created as a gift for the ancient Roman festival of Saturn in December, a period of general merrymaking and the predecessor of Christmas. The figurine holds traces of pink paint, suggesting that her garments were once bright and colorful, making her an attractive gift for a wealthy family. In ancient Roman culture, sigillaria were pottery or wax figurines given as traditional gifts during the Saturnalia. The Sigillaria on 19 December was a day of gift-giving. Gifts were often the pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria made especially for the Saturnalia festival.
• Fish Plate
  • This Fish Plate is decorated with three large fish and a smaller fish plus shellfish. The inclusion of smaller sea creatures between the larger fish is characteristic of Apulian fish plates, creating a highly decorative effect. The dish was used for serving fish, and the central depressed area collected juices from the fish and perhaps contained a sauce. The plate could also have been used as a funerary offering.