#Exhibit of the Month

The metal vessel was likely used as a funerary urn. It was found together with another vessel, shaped like a shell and used as a lid for the urn, in a landslide along the road within the Yahorlyk Nature Reserve, Dubăsari District. The village of Yahorlyk is located at the mouth of the stream of the same name, a left tributary of the Dniester River.
The vessel belongs to the Hemmoo type (or Eggers 63) and is a rare find in the late ancient sites of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Researchers consider this type of vessel to be of Italic, Gallo-Italic, or Mediterranean origin, frequently used as a funerary urn or burial inventory by the Bastarnae. Upon discovery, the vessel was reportedly filled with "earth and burnt bones."

The vessel was found together with a brass sheet vessel that had undulated or fluted walls. It has a height of 14.9 cm (without the base ring). The diameter of the vessel's body is 19.5 cm, and the total height is 16.2 cm. The rim of the vessel flares outward with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The vessel is made from thin brass sheet, only 0.1 cm thick. The upper part of the vessel is modestly ornamented. The middle of the rim, on the exterior, has a shallow horizontal line incised. The transition from the rim to the body is marked by a wide groove, 0.3 cm in width. From this groove, the rim thickens to 0.25 cm. On the upper part of the rim, on two symmetrically placed sides, semicircular handles with stepped bases were cut out. The handles are 2.2 cm in height and 5.1 cm in width. Including the "steps" at the base, the handles are 6.1 cm wide. In the middle of each handle, a circular elongated hole was made for the attachment of a handle, measuring 1.2 x 1.5 cm.

The ornamentation on the upper part of the vessel's body consists of two bands, each formed by two parallel incised lines, spaced 0.2 to 0.4 cm apart. The interval between the two bands is 0.9 cm. The vessel's handle is semicircular, mobile, fairly thick, rectangular in cross-section (0.8 x 0.9 cm), and made from a rounded brass bar. The ends of the handle are thinned to 0.6 cm and widened to 0.9 cm over a length of 2.6 cm, resembling bird heads. On the median part of the bar, incised marks resembling Roman numerals IX and XI are present. The bottom of the vessel was made from a separate brass sheet, worked by pressing on a lathe. Evidence of this process is the indentation from the lathe's fixing rod, preserved in the central part of the vessel's bottom. Surrounding this indentation is an ornament consisting of two bands of concentric lines, with diameters of 1.8 cm and 5.9 cm, respectively. The lower part of the vessel is raised and rests on a ringed base, formed by shaping the vessel's walls and bending the piece that formed the actual bottom. This base has a diameter of 8.7 cm.

For the North-West Pontic and East-Carpathian regions, several scattered sites or points where fragments of metal vessels were discovered, used as funerary inventory or urns, should be mentioned. These include discoveries from the funerary complexes of flat necropolises dated to the first centuries AD, at Hansca-Lutăria II and Dănceni-Ialoveni. Here, excavations identified noble graves with fragments of bronze vessels with metal handles, similar to the vessel from Yahorlyk.

Virtual Tour

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.