#Exhibit of the Month

In the culture of many peoples from ancient times (and to the present day), mirrors have been given a special role in ritual practice, especially funerary ones. For many communities, mirrors, like metal objects in general, served to protect against evil spirits. Mirrors had a dual purpose - a utilitarian one, as a toilet item, and ritual, as an attribute of a magical rite. The latter is explained by the fact that in the ideas of many peoples the soul of a person is connected to his reflection in a mirror or water. Being external to man, the "soul-reflection" is subject to various dangers.

Obviously, belief in the magical possibilities of mirrors is one of the reasons why the owners kept them closed in wooden, cloth, felt or leather cases and pouches. An expensive mirror was placed in the grave along with the deceased for fear that the soul of a living person reflected in it could be carried away by the spirit of the person passed away. On the other hand, to this day, many nations have a tradition of hanging all the mirrors if there is a dead person in the house, so as not to multiply death.

Metal mirrors are quite rare at the dawn of Scythian history, but over time, they were widely distributed in the Classical time or "Herodotus' Scythia" of the 5th-4th centuries BC. Then the mirror became one of the most important toilet items in Scythian burials. In the west of the Pontic steppes, at least 40 mirrors are known, made in Scythian or Greek workshops, 12 of them are stored in the collection of the National Museum of the History of Moldova.

One of the metal mirrors of Greek work was found on the left bank of the Dniester, near the Nikolskoe village, in the burial mound 14. It was found in a burial near a skull, and in addition to a mirror, 114 arrowheads and six golden fish-shaped plaques. The mirror was cast in bronze along with the handle. The mirror diameter is 16.5 cm, handle length with a round extension is 11.5 cm.

Although burial 1 of kurgan 14 was identified as male, 18-20 years old, mirrors are a marker of exclusively female burials. Such bronze mirrors with side handles appear in the middle of the 5th century BC but were most massively distributed during the last quarter of the 5th - the first half of the 4th century BC.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Magic of Lights of Other Times”

May 18, 2022 – December 31, 2022

The temporary exhibition "Magic of Lights of Other Times" is the result of research and scientific development of the collection of lighting fixtures from the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The exhibition presents a variety of forms and types of devices that reflect the evolution and role of artificial lighting in everyday and spiritual life. It brings together more than fifty authentic objects of scientific, historical, commemorative and aesthetic value, which form the basis of the exhibition; these pieces came into the museum's collections through transfers, purchases and donations and date back to the period from the 5^th-4^th centuries BC to the 1990s. Many of these authentic pieces have undergone a process of restoration and conservation.

The exhibition takes us back to the past of this "miracle", providing an opportunity to leaf through the history of the evolution of indoor and outdoor artificial lighting by the display of a variety of light sources: hearth fire, torch, oil lamp, made of ceramic and metal. This is followed by candlesticks, which, in terms of their functionality and symbolism, served and continue to serve as a support for light, being used in church and secular environments. A candle, initially made of animal fat with a cane wick, then of beeswax and cotton or hemp thread, was easy to use and simple and economical to manufacture compared to other devices, helped to create a whole family of different lamps. The typological range of fixtures continues with a variety of gas and electric table lamps, some of which bear the brand of the manufacturer: Otto Muller, Berlin, Ehrich &Graetz Berlin, Anna Brenner (Germany), Brunner, Schneider, Ditmar (Warsaw), Triumph (France), and others. With the beginning of the process of modernization of society, table and ceiling chandeliers began to be used more and more, differing in material, size, style and elegance. Although in small quantities, professional lighting devices are also presented at the exhibition: lanterns used by miners in underground mines and lanterns of railway workers. Among the portable lanterns are those for everyday use, called "Bat" after the name of the German company "Fledermaus" that produced them, which were used for lighting at night. Lanterns played an important role in illuminating public places, initially by burning animal fat, with which the wick was impregnated, and later gas lanterns appeared, which illuminated only central or commercial roads.

Noteworthy are objects that, in addition to their historical, scientific and artistic value, also have memorial significance. Here we should mention the silver candlestick that belonged to the family of the Bessarabian writer Constantin Stamati, the kerosene ceiling lamp from the prominent politician and philanthropist Vasile Stroescu's mansion in the village of Brânzeni, Edineț district, the electric table lamp of Academician Nicolae Dimo, the night lamp of film director Valeriu Gagiu and the table lamp of conductor B. Milyutin.

The exhibition is complemented by thematic photographs and reconstructions of mini-interiors with artificial lighting.

The temporary exhibition "Magic of Lights of Other Times" can be visited from May 18, 2022 to December 31, 2022.