#Exhibit of the Month

One of the great technical achievements that revolutionized the idea of time and space, opening a new era in the history of communication, is telegraphy. It is based on the transmission of electrical signals through a cable over long distances, allowing people to communicate instantly. The telegraph spread very quickly and a network of wires stretched around the world.

In 1837, the American painter and physicist Samuel Morse invented the first electromagnetic device for telegraphy, patented in 1840. To send messages by wire, Morse developed in 1838 a simple code of dots and dashes, which represented the letters of the alphabet, known as "Morse code ".

Both Morse code and the telegraph machine were improved over time, with the telegraph becoming the most widespread system of communication and information transmission for more than a century, until the advent of the Internet. The telegraph system consisted of a series of stations repeaters along the transmission line route. Each station had an operator who received and transmitted messages by telegraph. The Morse machine transmitted about 25 words per minute, which were recorded in code on a paper tape. The operator in charge of transmitting the message would decode it and write it on paper using a special typewriter.

In Bessarabia, the telegraph entered in 1860: on April 8, the Bender telegraph station began its activity, and on April 24, the one in Chisinau, following the construction of the first Odesa-Chisinau-Leova telegraph line. Currently, telegraph services have been discontinued. The only ones who still use coded communication are radio amateurs.

The Morse telegraph machine shown comes from the Osinoostrovsky electrotechnical plant, Soviet Union, and dates back to 1934. The exhibit was restored by Mihail Culașco.

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Exhibitions

"Dănceni archaeological complex: 50 years since the start of field research"

Exhibition dedicated to the International Day of Monuments and Sites

April 17 – May 12, 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova announces the opening of the thematic exhibition "Dănceni Archaeological Complex: 50 years since the start of field research". The opening of the exhibition will take place on April 17, 2024, at 11:00, second floor.

The exhibition is organized on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the start of archaeological research in the Dănceni I settlement and in the Dănceni II necropolis near Dănceni village, Ialoveni district. The Dănceni I settlement was discovered in 1958 by Isac Rafalovici, the site being attributed to the early medieval culture. Later, in 1964, Valentin Dergacev established that this site also contains a chronological level from the Neolithic period, which was attributed to the Linear Pottery culture, which is a creation of the first farmers in Europe (end of the 6th millennium BC).

The systematic archaeological excavations in the settlement of Dănceni I and the necropolis of Dănceni II were initiated in 1974 in connection with the start of the development works of the huge Dănceni reservoir, these being coordinated by Isak Rafalovici (1974-1976 and 1978), and later by Natalia Golțeva (1979), Olga Larina and Valentin Dergacev (1980).

The researches have shown that the Dănceni I site is pluristratigraphic, including vestiges from the Neolithic period, the Bronze Age, the Early Middle Ages (6th-7th centuries and the 10th-12th centuries) and the Late Middle Ages (15th-17th centuries). Taking into account the impressed surface investigated in this site, of 3254 m2, it can be seen that the settlements attributed to the Neolithic (6th millennium BC) and the early Middle Ages (5th-7th centuries) in this archaeological complex are among the most intensively researched in the Republic of Moldova. Within this site, following archaeological investigations, traces of 23 residential and household constructions from the Neolithic period and the vestiges of over 100 constructions from the early medieval period were identified, and at the same time, an impressive collection of vessels was also obtained ceramics, flint tools, bone, horn, but also a representative archaeozoological material.

On the other hand, it was found that the Dănceni II necropolis is among the largest burial sites known in the Republic of Moldova, where 405 human burials were discovered, the largest part (338) belonging to the Roman period, being attributed to the Sântana culture Mureș-Cerneahov from the III-IV centuries.

The necropolis of Dănceni II is the largest of the necropolises from the Roman period researched in the area between the Dniester and the Prut. Among the materials obtained, in addition to the impressive collection of ceramics, it is worth mentioning metal ornaments (including gold and silver), glass cups and horn combs. One of the most enigmatic objects is a funerary urn decorated with crescent-shaped engravings, swastikas, crosses, rosettes, which, according to one version, would represent an ancient calendar.

In addition to the burials from the Roman period, in the researched area of the necropolis of 8415 m2, funerary complexes from the Bronze Age (Usatovo culture, Catacombs culture, pottery culture with relief belts - Babino) and the Early Iron Age (a Thraco-Scythian horizon).

Early Bronze Age burials of the Usatovo culture (third quarter of the 4th millennium BC) form a compact necropolis with painted pottery, bronze and horn objects. A burial of the Catacomb culture (mid-3rd millennium BC) was accompanied by a hand-moulded bowl with rich decoration. Complexes from the Middle Bronze Age (Babino culture, end of the 3rd millennium - beginning of the 2nd millennium BC) contained three vessels modeled by hand, one of which is decorated with some "mysterious signs".

The burial inventory from the Early Iron Age (6th-5th centuries BC) consists of weapons (spearheads, arrowheads), pieces of harness, tools (knives) and pottery (hand and wheel-shaped pottery), being, without a doubt, a military necropolis. The most recent burial in the necropolis, with ornaments including two large digital fibulae and a bronze bracelet, belongs to a woman and is dated to the early 6th century.