#Exhibit of the Month

The exhibited necklace of beads originates from Funerary Complex No. 6 of Kurgan No. 4, excavated in 1982 by Dr. Habil. Eugen SAVA near the town of Taraclia. The beads were found in the chest area of the deceased, indicating that they had been worn as a necklace and had remained in their original position within the funerary assemblage.
The necklace consists of 11 elements made entirely of Egyptian faience. Eight of the beads are spherical and decorated with vertical incisions forming between 14 and 21 raised ribs. Their diameters range from 13 to 20 mm. Two additional elements are scarab representations measuring 23.5 × 19.5 mm, while the final component is a flattened cylindrical pendant bead featuring a central vertical groove and measuring 22 × 9 mm. The objects range in color from light blue to dark blue and violet hues, reflecting the natural deterioration and glaze variations characteristic of Egyptian faience.
Egyptian faience is an artificial quartz-based material coated with an alkaline glaze, typically blue or blue-green in color. It was widely used in Ancient Egypt and later spread throughout the Mediterranean and Pontic regions through trade networks. During the first centuries AD, such objects served as important indicators of cultural and economic contacts between the Mediterranean world and the communities of the North Pontic region.
Owing to its typological, technological, and symbolic characteristics, the Taraclia necklace is an exceptionally valuable artifact for the study of intercultural relations, the circulation of prestige goods, and the funerary practices of the Sarmatian communities during the first centuries AD (1st-2nd centuries AD).

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Exhibitions

“Childhood in the Gulag”

“Alecu Russo” State University of Balti

April 11 - June 30, 2025

In the context of the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of the Famine of 1946-1947 in the Moldavian SSR, the National Museum of History of Moldova announces, in partnership with the „Alecu Russo" State University of Balti and the Institute of History of MSU, the opening of the exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag". The event will take place on April 11, 2025, at 11:30, in the administrative building of the "Alecu Russo" State University of Balti, the first floor lobby.

The exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" presents photo-documentary images that reflect the lives of Bessarabian children sentenced to deportation, starvation, Russification, indoctrination and forced separation from their families based on the repressive policies of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR, during the period 1940-1941 and 1944-1953. The exhibition brings together about 180 photo-documentary images, accompanied by memoirs and archival documents from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova, the Museum of the Edineț Territory, the Museum of History and Ethnography in Soroca, the ProMemoria Institute, the archives of memory communities, as well as the family archives of victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in the Moldavian SSR.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" will be open until June 15.

The photo-documentary exhibition "Childhood in the Gulag" was elaborated within the project "Strengthening the European culture of memory by disseminating historical knowledge and promoting democratic values: exchange and implementation of the best practices between Lithuania and the Republic of Moldova", with the support of the "Development Cooperation and Democracy Promotion Programme" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania.

#Exhibit of the Month

Necklace of Egyptian faience beads discovered at Taraclia

“Childhood in the Gulag”

“Alecu Russo” State University of Balti

April 11 - June 30, 2025

#Exhibit of the Month