Agios Nikolaos Archaeological Museum

The 8-room museum was established in 1970 to house recent archeological finds in eastern Crete. As of autumn, 2015, the museum was closed for remodeling with no definite re-opening date scheduled as of then. Information on its web site said that it closed in 2011, so it's possible that Greece's ongoing fiscal woes are playing a role in its remaining closed.

The museum is arranged in chronological order beginning with the Neolithic Period (6,000 BC), and includes the Minoan (3,000 BC), Roman, and Byzantine Eras. Its most interesting item is the skull of an athlete excavated from the Roman cemetery near Agios Nikolaos, which is wearing an olive leaf victory wreath fashioned out of gold. The skull had a coin in its mouth dating from the 1st century, AD Emperor Tiberius. The coin would have been for Charon, who ferried the dead across Acherusian Lake to Hades.

Other exhibits include the well-known "Goddess of Myrtos" statuette from early Minoan times, which was actually a container used for pouring libations during sacrificial rituals. There are a number of finds from the Minoan Palace at Malia. There are also many vases, chalices, incense burners, obsidian and bronze tools and weapons found the cemetery of Agia Photia close to the sea.

There are also a number of human and animal figurines from the Middle Minoan period (2,000 BC), and a gold diadem from the Early Minoan (2,600 BC) period.