The wealth of archaeological finds at Aiani called for the construction of a large new museum with modern facilities. This museum, which was founded in 1992 and finally completed, with all its fittings and exhibition, in March 2009, was intended to house the Prehistoric and Classical antiquities from Aiani and its environs, but it already also contains the thousands of finds from the salvage excavations necessitated by the construction of new roads in the national and provincial road network (the Via Egnatia, Kozani-Ptolemaida-Niki national highway and Rymnio-Kozani link). These excavations were completed recently but at the same time new ones have been commenced as a result of the large-scale public works under way in the prefectures of Kozani and Grevena (the road network, lignite mines and Public Power Corporation dams). Consequently, the museum has gradually become a repository for the prehistoric and Classical antiquities of two prefectures, thus creating a need for further space as the existing exhibition space is barely adequate for the antiquities of Aiani alone.
The building complex that forms the new Aiani Archaeological Museum (with a total area of 4500 sq. m.) has been erected on sloping ground outside and to the north of the modern township of Aiani. Most of the complex is laid out at ground-floor level, with access from the south, while public access to the exhibition space on the first floor (with a total area of approx. 1000 sq. m.) is mainly via an entrance on the north side (also at ground-level due to the slope). Apart from the internal and external staircases and the roads around the museum, communication between the two floors is also effected by a large elevator. The ground floor contains storerooms designed for the safe storage and preservation of artefacts, fully organised and equipped laboratories, offices, a library, a drawing-room, a carpentry workshop/tool store, public service areas, rooms housing the electro-mechanical installations, a hostel, and a multi-purpose room equipped with the latest audio-visual aids. Amongst other things, this last room serves as a central venue for Aiani’s educational programmes, which began in 1988 and now include 15 thematic units. Both the ground-floor areas and the exhibition area on the first floor have been designed to cater for people with disabilities, especially the blind and those who require wheelchair access.
