In 1863, archaeologists first started housing pottery and other artifacts found in the dig site in a small, makeshift outpost.

It was an exhibit for the larger German Archaeological Institute until the official Museum was built in 1937, by H. Johannes.

It is a small, open-air museum with only four rooms on a single floor, but it houses many important funerary works as well as larger sculptures.

Many of the artifacts found in Kerameikos are funerary or otherwise death-related and reflect the Athenian attitudes towards the afterlife.

As such, many of the sculptures exhibited here are urns, lekythoi, grave reliefs, stelae, in addition to jewelry, etc.