Early and Mid-Helladic material abounds in Aegina, especially in the port city. There are houses and a wall dating from around 2000 BCE in Aegina. Cooking ware and pithoi are the most common finds.

Mycenaean material is found in numerous places on the island. Figurines such as these are found in funeral and ritual contexts (peak sanctuaries), and it is clear that Aegina had strong ties with the Peloponnesus during this period. The museum in Aegina has a large number of Mycenaean vessels, figurines, and additional material culture.

This silver stater dates from around 530 BCE. Aeginetan coinage was ubiquitous in the ancient world and Aegina may have been one of the first Greek city-states to use coinage in an extensive manner. Strabo comments that Aegina was the first polis to mint silver coinage (8.6.16). Although Doric (like the Spartans), the Aeginetans were more devoted to the sea and commerce than the notoriously conservative Spartans. The sea turtle was an apt symbol for the wide ranging ships of Aegina but, after Aegina was conquered by Athens, the coinage changes to depict a land tortoise (image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons). There are replicas of these coins in the cases of the exhibition.

Goods travelled into Aegina from throughout the Greek world and the aristocracy and mercantile class of Aegina became very wealthy because of this. Their veritable thalassocracy made their island rich and famous in the Aegean. This Archaic vase (from the Cyclades) was found in Aegina and resides in the British Museum.

The Temple of Aphaia dates to the the Classical period and was completed c. 490 BCE. It was a symbol of the power and wealth of the island and placed prominently on a ridge that could be seen from the sea.

During the fifth century BCE, Aegina reached the apogee of its power, but also suffered its greatest defeat at the hands of Athens. It is clear that the Athenians were jealous of Aegina and, in some sense, desired to model their own polis on the trade and security that Aegina displayed (e.g. naval power was key to Themistocles' and Pericles' civic policy). Herodotus details how Aegina and Athens engaged in skirmishes until they came together as allies in the Persian War. Soon afterwards, however, with Athenian imperialism on the rise, Aegina would fall under the thumb of the Athenians. One can find in the songs of Pindar a sense of the self-definition and self-worth of the people of Aegina. Throughout those poems, one notes the stress on fair-dealing (necessary for a trading power), athletic prowess and heroism, and their tight-knit community.

As told in Herodotus (5.81-7), Aegina and Athens came to blows late in the 6th Century (505 BCE?) when Aegina came to the aid of the Thebans in their war against the Athenians. Herodotus utilizes this battle to report on past enmity between the Athenians and Aeginetans, and it is notable that Thebes and Aegina were considered allies in part because of mythological ties (the nymph Aegina originally was from the area of Thebes). The Aeginetans attacked the Attic coast during this "undeclared war" and the Athenians responded by building a shrine to Aeacus in the agora, building a navy, and resuming hostilities, until the Persian Wars broke out.

During the Battle of Salamis (480 BCE), Aegina's contribution was notable and Herodotus claims that the Aeacidae helped in the battle in some tangible manner. He also writes that the Greeks agreed the Aeginetan fleet was the bravest in the battle (8.93). This glory (kleos) for being the best (aristeia) is almost epic in nature. The Athenians were awarded second prize. Although the Athenians had originally built their fleet in order to continue hostilities against Aegina, the Persian Wars turned their focus towards the invading armies of Darius and Xerxes. After the Persian War, however, the Athenians embark on a more imperialistic foreign policy and even Aegina can not escape their grasp for long.