In 2026, the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum began a collaboration with the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki (AMTh, https://www.amth.gr/en) and the HeMEN research programme on ancient metallurgy (Habitat et Métallurgie en Égée du Nord: https://hemen.univ-lille.fr/) run by the University of Lille (HARTIS UMR 9028: https://hartis.univ-lille.fr/vie-scientifique/activites-de-terrain) and the French School at Athens. The aim of the collaboration is the archaeological, archaeometric and technological study of 161 ancient bronze artefacts.
These objects belong to the category of so-called “Macedonian Bronzes”, a distinctive group of jewellery and personal ornaments—primarily body and dress ornaments—produced in Macedonia, the northwestern Aegean and the south-central Balkans during the Iron Age. They have a wide geographical distribution, extending from the southern Mediterranean to the northern Balkans and from Italy to the Caucasus.
With the permission of the Ministry of Culture, the bronze objects were transferred to the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, where they are being systematically examined by an interdisciplinary team of scholars and analysed in the museum’s Archaeometry Laboratory. The results of the study will be published in a volume in the Canellopoulos Museum’s publication series.
For more information, see
