#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.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Hansca – archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)”

April 18 - May 5, 2014

A new exhibition with the generic "Hansca - archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)" was opened to the large public at the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The exhibition reunites about 300 archaeological objects, the most representative from HANSCA collection, which have scientific, documentary, historic and esthetic value.

Exhibition “Hansca – archaeological site and school-site (50 years from the beginning of research)”

The pieces included in the exhibition are authentic with only a very small number of objects being subject to some obvious procedures of restoration and conservation. They reflect economic activities displayed through tools of metal, bone, clay or stone; the esthetic taste shown through clothing and adornment objects; religious representations reflected through miniature pieces, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic and through the „magic kit", all dated with the 4th-3rd centuries BC.

Religious beliefs from the Middle Ages are represented by a cross made from wire and a Byzantine type encolpion. Exchange and commercial relations with the Greek and Roman world, and with the Byzantine and Slavic world later in the Medieval period, are documented by objects of glass, bronze and silver.

The original exhibits are accompanied by panoramic or detailed photographic images which reflect the archaeological investigations conducted by researchers and the active participation of students.

International Day for Monuments and Sites celebrated at the National Museum of History of Moldova

Dedicated to the semicentenary from the first archaeological excavation at the site from Hansca, the exhibition is a tribute to all those who through their dedication and perseverance contributed essentially to the valorification of national archaeological heritage and to an objective reconstruction of historic process.

One of the most important sites with objectives of great scientific interest for the archeology and history of Romanian space east of Carpathians has been discovered and investigated near Hansca village, Ialoveni district. The site from Hansca has been identified in 1959. Already in 1960 were conducted the first surveys and were discovered remains of habitat from Getae-Dacian and early medieval periods.

Systematic archaeological investigations at the site from Hansca began in 1964 and continued during 20 archaeological campaigns. As a result of the excavations a total surface of several thousands of square meters has been uncovered. There were discovered remains dated with the late Bronze Age (Noua culture); early Hallstatt (Tămăoani-Holercani culture); Getae culture; Sântana de Mureș-Cernjahov culture and early and developed medieval period.

Starting with the dimensions of the researched area and the number and diversity of discovered archaeological material, the site from Hansca is rightfully considered to be as one of the most representative ancient and medieval monument from Carpathian-Dniester space.

The site from Hansca played a very special role as archaeological site and school. Here, during the entire period of research, tenth of generations of students from history departments conducted their compulsory archeological internship. At Hansca, the students, many of whom later became renowned archaeologists in the Republic of Moldova, have learned and practiced excavation techniques, methods and methodologies of heritage and artifacts management.