#Exhibit of the Month

Bronze cauldrons of the Scythian time are rare in the Northern Black Sea region, especially on its western borders. Therefore, those few items found on the territory of the Republic of Moldova occupy a worthy place in the collection of the National Museum of History of Moldova (NMHM). In particular, in the archaeological exhibition, two bronze cauldrons are displayed, discovered near the village of Nicolscoe in 1988 in burial mounds no. 14 and 15. In addition, in 2020, two bronze cauldrons without any accompanying documents were found in the collection of NMHM; however, they were visually identified as coming from various excavations in the Low Dniester region, such as burial mound no. 45 near Dubăsari and burial mound no. 1 near the Răscăieții Noi village.

The object presented as the exhibit of the month is a little-known find discovered in 1979 in barrow 1 near the village of Răscăieții Noi in the Ștefan Vodă district. In addition to its outstanding size (about 10 m high), this mound is known for discovering a cast bronze finial in the Scythian animal style on its surface in 1953. However, by the beginning of excavations, the locals had damaged part of the mound and a Scythian cast bronze cauldron was found near it. The cauldron was seriously damaged by mechanical impact, as a result of which the rim was deformed, and the walls, with one preserved vertical handle, were bent inwards. Fragments in the upper part of the body and one handle have been lost. The total reconstructed height of the cauldron is 24 cm (excluding the handles), the reconstructed diameter of the hemispherical cauldron is 30 cm, and the weight is 6.5 kg. In 2020, data on the chemical composition of the bronze cauldron alloy were obtained, revealing that it was cast from an alloy of almost 95 per cent copper. Unfortunately, due to the loss of information on the context of the discovery of the cauldron at Răscăieții Noi, it is impossible to link its discovery with one or another Scythian burial of the barrow. Moreover, the grave goods of other Scythian burials of Barrow 1 do not allow them to date below the 4th century BC. However, the cauldron with vertical handles from Răscăieții Noi most likely belongs earlier. This may be indicated by a bronze finial from the first half of the 5th century BC, which was found on this barrow in 1953. In addition, burial 7 from the nearest excavated barrow 2 at Răscăieții Noi, containing a plaque depicting a rolled predator (a copy of which is also on display at the NMHM), belongs to the mid- 5th century BC. Thus, there is a high probability that the cauldron from Barrow 1 at Răscăieții Noi is associated with the late Middle Scythian period or the mid-5th century BC.

Scythian bronze cauldrons in the west area are concentrated in three main regions: Bukovina-Podolia, the Lower Danube, and the Lower Dniester. Some Scythian cauldrons have no reliable archaeological context. Nevertheless, in combination with the same "stray" finds like the Scythian statues, the finds of Scythian cauldrons mark the Scythian presence, most likely not earlier than the late 6th century or even the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC. The cauldrons first appeared in Bukovina, where they have been known since the middle of the 7th century BC. Bronze cauldrons (with their carriers) entered the steppe region 150-200 years later, and the "military" burials that appeared in the western steppe regions were no earlier than the middle of the 5th century BC. Most burials with cauldrons (and, apparently, the stray finds) are dated back to the second half of the 5th century BC. Then, in the early 4th century BC, their quantity was reduced, and after the first quarter of the 4th century BC, they completely disappeared from the cultural practice of the population of the steppes of the North-Western Black Sea region.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“In Siberian Shackles. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941 and 1944-1953”

5 – 31 July 2023

The exhibition "In Siberian Shackles. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941 and 1944-1953" presents the life of children exiled in the Soviet Gulag. The photo-documentary testimonies and documents brought to the attention of the visitors reproduce the emotional sensitivity, experiences and traumatic memories of a generation in relation to its own past.

Despite Stalin's 1935 assertion that "the son is not responsible for the deeds of the father", the Soviet authorities resorted to convicting all family members and inoculating collective guilt. Soon, the expression "child of the kulak" came to produce shivers of horror among Bessarabian children, considered "agents of socialist transformations".

In June 1941, 3.470 families of "anti-Soviet elements" (22.648 people), including children of these families, were deported from the Moldavian SSR. In July 1949, as part of the "South" Operation, 11.293 families (35.796 people) were deported, including 11.899 children. In 1951, for religious reasons, 723 families (2.724 people), including 799 children, were forced to leave the Moldavian SSR. The families of the deportees were transported in cattle wagons and placed in localities with a forced residence regime, under the supervision of the commandant. The feeding of all people in the first years of deportation was exclusively within the limits of the bread ration, the children of "enemies of the people" being often omitted from the supply lists in which only persons trained in the field of labor were enrolled. Along with the deported parents, the children were forced to adapt to the extreme conditions, by developing new roles and social networks: by interacting with local people and local authorities; by integrating, as much as possible, into the foreign cultural environment; by learning the Russian language, declared the official language of communication in the USSR space; by performing political loyalty and practicing self-censorship, which facilitated reintegration into society.

The narratives of children educated during the years of Soviet power in the Moldavian SSR contain experiences, attitudes, events, which reveal their individual vision of the past, their personal experience of confronting the system. Silence and self-censorship were among the strategies imposed, and the attitude of the repressive system towards children deported through the application of denationalization policies reflects the essence of Soviet society in general. However, as shown by the images and documents presented in the exhibition, the party-state's project regarding the construction of the "happy childhood in the USSR" suffered serious derailments and random adjustments, becoming an ideological template intended to cover up the horrors of the totalitarian-communist regime.

The exhibition brings together about 100 photographic images, accompanied by memories and archival documents that reflect the GULAG period of children deported from the Moldavian SSR, during the three waves of mass deportations carried out by the Soviet authorities in 1941, 1949 and 1951. The photo-documentary images were selected from the NMHM patrimony and from the collections recently recovered in different localities of the Republic of Moldova, accompanied by maps of the Soviet GULAG, decisions and documents of the repression bodies that reveal the way the deportation operations were carried out, the conditions of living, schooling and working in Siberia and Kazakhstan.

The exhibition "In Siberian Shackles. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941 and 1944-1953" is a memory tribute to the children who went through the atrocities of the totalitarian-communist regime in the USSR, as well as a pubic action condemning the war launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

The exhibition will be open to the public in the upper hall of the Museum until July 31, 2023.