The Siatista’s Palaeontological Collection, housed in a high-school building in Siatista, Kozani, Macedonia, Greece, was studied in the summer of 2009 by Professor Dr Evangelia Tsoukala and Dick Mol. The collection was brought together by local people from 1902 onwards, under the initiative of Mr. Nikolaos Diamantopoulos. Mr. Anastasios Danas, a high-school teacher at the Trampantzeion Gymnasium in Siatista, was the main collector and he founded the Siatista’s Palaeontological Collection in 1906. The records of the collection are minimal and it is not always clear from which locality the fossils were collected. However, the archived documents indicate that all the fossils were collected in the larger region of Siatista. One of the villages where fossils originated is Polylakkos. In 1976, Professor Ioannes K. Melentis, famous for all his studies and publications on the fossil proboscideans of Greece, realized the importance of the collection and in 1980 he became involved in the study and management of the collection which was donated to the community of Siatista in 1994.

This interesting collection contains 56 remains of Pliocene and Pleistocene proboscideans, including the mastodon of Auvergne, Anancus arvernensis, the southern mammoth, Mammuthus meridionalis and the straight-tusked elephant, Elephas antiquus. All the material has been re-identified and catalogued by the authors. One of the most interesting items in the collection is a fragment of a lower m3 of a stegodon, Stegodon sp., catalogued as SIA 22.

The collection is dominated by remains of the straight-tusked elephant, Elephas antiquus. Since it was decided by the Council if the Siatista community to put the Siatista’s Palaeontological Collection in a new and fresh display in the wonderfully restored Trampantzeion Gymnasium building on the Ioannis Trampatzis Square in Siatista, the idea has grown to have a real eye-catcher to surprise the visitors. Soon it became clear to have a good sized scale model of this extinct species of proboscideans on display, sculpted by the Dutch sculptor Remie Bakker from Rotterdam.

I had the exclusive opportunity to follow the process and the progress of the work by Remie Bakker and the supervision by Dick Mol with my camera in the workshop of Remie in Rotterdam harbour. I feel very privileged to follow these passionate gentlemen.

The height of this clay model is 101 cm and the length is 130 cm, including the tusks. Already by now, March 11, 2010, Remie has used 140 kg of clay for modelling. This clay model will be moulded and finally one or two casts will be produced. A real eye-catcher, this massive straight-tusked or forest elephant that once was roaming, amongst others, north-western Europe during interglacial periods of the Pleistocene when the average temperature might be 1 – 2 degrees Celcius warmer than today. At the same time hippo’s were living in rivers and small lakes. A little bit like today ‘s sub-tropical Africa.