#Exhibit of the Month

The 21 beads form part of a bronze hoard found in 2019 within a forested area close to the town of Nisporeni. Alongside the beads, the hoard included numerous bronze ornaments (2 Röschitz-Sanislău-type fibulae, 7 necklaces, 12 rings, 22 tubes, 23 bracelets, and approximately 80 appliqués), one coral bead and a pendant made from a wild animal's tooth. At present, the amber beads are preserved in the collections of the Muzeul Național de Istorie a Moldovei, while the remainder of the hoard is in the possession of a private collector.
The hoard was discovered accidentally in a pit about 50 cm deep. The objects in this hoard are of Western origin, with known parallels in archaeological complexes from Poland, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia, and, to a lesser extent, in Romania. The presence of this bronze hoard on the territory of the Republic of Moldova illustrates the cultural dynamics of the region during the Early Iron Age and a fundamental shift in the vector of cultural influences from east to west.

The amber bead strand comprises 16 whole beads and five fragmentary ones. They have an elongated biconical shape and vary in size. The beads are brown-reddish in color; their lengths range from 1.1 to 3.1 cm, widths from 0.6 to 1.4 cm, thicknesses from 0.6 to 1.1 cm, and the perforation diameter ranges between 0.2 and 0.3 cm.
Amber beads appear in several bronze hoards dated to the Late Bronze Age in the eastern half of Slovakia and in Transdanubian Hungary. Parallels are also known from the Cioclovina Cave in Romania. With the onset of the Iron Age, amber items disappear from the Carpathian Basin for approximately 300 years, reappearing alongside the arrival of Scythian elements.
The bronze hoard discovered at Nisporeni is dated to the HaA2-HaB1-2 interval (1050/1000 - 800/750 B.C.).

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Exhibitions

“In the World of Toys”

(December 16, 2010 - February 16, 2011)

The exhibition entitled “In the World of Toys” brings together over 300 objects dated from the 4th millennium B.C. to 2010, for the most part from private collections. The exhibits were selected by the criteria of exceptional state of conservation, intrinsic value, and uniqueness. The work in collaboration with the State University, Teleradio Moldova Studio, and collectors from the Republic of Moldova and Romania revealed extremely interesting items in terms of science, esthetics, and origin.

The history of toys evidently is as old as the history of human world. The oldest toys were made of materials found in nature, such as wood and clay. So, the exhibition presents an ensemble of figurative objects: rattles of the 4th millennium B.C. (National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova), anthropomorphic figurines dated from the 4th century B.C. (Museum of Antiquities of the State University of Moldova), zoomorphic figurines and miniature vessels of the 9th-10th centuries A.D. (National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova). The exhibition is continued with wooden toys (Ion Podaru’s collection), ceramic whistles (Iurie Caminschi’s collection), wooden pipes (Grigore Posternac’s collection), dolls of straw and corn husk (collections of Natalia Cangea and Vera Muzlaeva).

Another category of toys, which gives a shade of elegance to the exhibition, consists of dolls of papier-mâché and porcelain made in France, Germany and USA. Of particular interest is a doll of papier-mâché and porcelain made in France in 1860 (Mihai Ciocanu’s collection). The exhibition also includes dolls made of porcelain in 1920, 1960-90 (Galina Kharzhevskaya’s collection).

The next part of the exhibition brings together plastic, celluloid, and rubber dolls made in Germany (1960-1990) and USSR (1950-1990). The most interesting are toys produced by the Durlesti Dolls Factory, the only enterprise of this kind in the territory of the Republic of Moldova during 1960-1990.

A special group of exhibits consists of the toys for boys: tin soldiers (Emma Azina’s collection), toy cars (collections of Sergiu Gutu and Iurie Revenco), and toy trains (Victor Tocmacov’s collection).

On display there are also puppets of the Prichindel TV Puppet-show and the Guguta Municipal Puppet-show. The exhibition is complemented with works of the Origami Center Moldova, illustrated postcards and photographs from the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, the Nina Djos’s collection of dolls in national costumes, and teddy bears (Tatiana Sukhoparenko’s collection).

The exhibition ends with a group of contemporary toys, such as the dolls of Cleopatra (Valentina Anton’s collection), Bratz, and Barbie, the Disney characters. The exhibition will be open to the public from December 16, 2010 to February 16, 2011.

#Exhibit of the Month

Exhibit of the Month Amber beads from a bronze hoard discovered near the town of Nisporeni

“In the World of Toys”

(December 16, 2010 - February 16, 2011)

#Exhibit of the Month