National History Museum of Vrisa

Being eight kilometers long and ten to thirty metres wide, Vatera is one of the most beautiful beaches not only of Greece but also of the whole Mediterranean Sea. It belongs to the village of Vrisa, which is part of the Municipality of Polichnitos. A wide road connects Vatera to Vrisa. This road drives through pebble rock river-torrents and sandy mud. These sediments prove the existence of a river system with riverbeds and flood plains. During the construction of a building in Vatera, the lower jawbone of a provoscidoto (elephant) was initially discovered. The fossil was determined to belong to the species of anarcus arvenencis, an elephant that disappeared 1,6 million years ago. More research led to the discovery of more fossils such as the hooves of a petrified horse, the shell of a turtle and the crumbled jawbone of the carnivorous species nyctereutes. 

The quantity of fossils is unique partly because of the diversity of species and second and more important because of the fossils themselves, some of which are completely unknown and several that are well known in other places: a dwarf antelope, a giant turtle and a big ape.

A second excavation, organized in September, confirmed the first conclusions. This fossil-bearing spot in Vatera is of great scientific importance as it provides us with significant information concerning the natural environment during the Pliocene, just before the beginning of the Ice Age, a period when the early humans appeared in the Old World.

The abundance of gazelle, horse and antelope fossils implies a savanna environment. The sediments indicate the existence of a river system where, most probably, forests developed at its banks. The presence of an ape-paradolichopithecus-known only in two places in Europe and the giant turtle constitute the fauna of Vatera unique.

From the beach of Vatera you can see the Isle of Chios. Two million years ago, which is also the age of fossils, the view was completely different. Chios was joined to Lesvos. There was a river system with flood plains. There were herds of gazelles and giraffes fed with grass or tree leaves.

The findings of the Vatera excavations are hosted in the old school of Vrisa. It is a particularly interesting collection consisting of a) petrified findings of vertebrate and invertebrate such as biped apes, large horses, gazelles, deers, cattle, mammoths, elephants and other fossils, b) petrology and mineralogy fossils which covers the mining wealth of Lesvos, c) a department of zoology with representative species of the Lesvos fauna, d) a botany department with samples of contemporary and petrified fauna of Lesvos.

In the back yard of the museum a clay model of the giant turtle-in the size of a small car-is exhibited.

Source: en.mytilene.gr