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#Exhibit of the Month

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The ceramic vessel set was discovered accidentally in October 2025 in the southwestern part of the village of Bălceana, Hâncești District, approximately 1.2 km from the Lăpușnița River. The archaeological materials were recovered by the National Archaeological Agency.

The ceramic assemblage consists of a large storage vessel (pithos) with a capacity of 20 litres (h = 39.2 cm; d = 35.0 cm), decorated with a raised band below the rim; a medium-sized bowl with a capacity of 2.5 litres (h = 16.9 cm; d = 23.2 cm); a medium-sized jug with a capacity of 0.6 litres (h = 12.0 cm; d = 13.4 cm); and the base of a jar-shaped vessel.

The coarse handmade pottery was produced using the coil-building technique, by stacking and shaping coils of clay prepared from a paste tempered with crushed fired clay (grog) and sand. The vessel surfaces are uneven and covered with a yellowish-red slip featuring black patches, while the core of the vessel walls is black in colour.

The three vessels preserved intact display well-defined biconical shapes, with their maximum diameter at the middle of the body and straight or slightly oblique rims with rounded edges. Pottery of this type is characteristic of the Early Medieval cultural area of the northern and northwestern Black Sea region, dating from the 5th to the 7th centuries. East of the Dniester River, on the territory of present-day Ukraine, analogous pottery is found in Penkovka-type settlements, while in the Carpathian-Dniester region it is characteristic of settlements belonging to the Costișa-Botoșana-Hansca cultural group.

Within the Prut-Dniester region, coarse biconical pottery is generally represented by fragments and only relatively rarely by complete vessels, such as those discovered at Hansca, Dănceni, Recea, Seliște, Păhărniceni, and other sites. This type of pottery constituted an indispensable component of the local material culture during the 5th-7th centuries. In this context, the discovery at Bălceana of an almost intact set of coarse biconical vessels represents a relatively rare find of considerable scientific importance.

According to certain hypotheses, the tradition of coarse biconical pottery dating to the 5th-7th centuries originated in the North Pontic region. At the same time, it cannot be ruled out that these biconical ceramic vessels were the result of contemporary ethnocultural interactions, developing simultaneously across the vast territory extending from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dnieper River and the Seversky Donets.

Virtual Tour


Exhibitions

”Realms of Memory in the Post-Totalitarian Society”

June 24 – August 24, 2025

The National Museum of History of Moldova organizes on Tuesday, June 24, 2025, the opening of the exhibition "Realms of Memory in the Post-Totalitarian Society", dedicated to the 85th anniversary of the annexation of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the Herța Land by the USSR (June 28, 1940) as a result of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and is a homage to all the victims of the totalitarian-communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe during the years 1918-1989.

The exhibition reveals aspects of the commemorative culture in the post-totalitarian society in the former socialist camp (Poland, Romania) and the ex-Soviet space (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Russia), with the aim of contributing to the building of a European culture of memory and to consolidate the sense of European belonging in the Republic of Moldova. The images presented in the exhibition reflect realms of memory (lieux de mémoire, Pierre Nora) that today constitute the European memorial heritage - monuments erected in train stations from where persons were forcibly taken to prisons and special settlements in the USSR, commemorative steles on the buildings of communist prisons, crosses raised near the places of mass executions, memorials in memory of anti-communist resistance fighters, mass graves of famine victims.   

The exhibition offers the opportunity to learn about history and memory, the circumstances surrounding the creation of commemorative signs, but also their evolution in the culture of memory in post-totalitarian society. However, monuments, as well as other forms of commemoration of the past (street names, anniversary dates, commemorative days, minute of silence etc.) are part of our common European heritage. At the same time, the topography of memory articulated through these testimonies of remembrance of the past helps us understand the extent of the totalitarian phenomenon and the atrocities committed by the communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe.   

Most of the pieces presented in the exhibition come from the digital collection created within the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions of the NMHM, as result of research within the State Program "Recovery and Historical Valorization of the Memory of the Victims of the Totalitarian-Communist Regime in the Moldavian SSR during the Years 1940-1941, 1944-1953". Some of the images exhibited are the result of cooperation with colleagues from the Resistance Memorial in Sighet (Romania), the Sybir Memorial Museum in Bialystok (Poland), the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights in Vilnius (Lithuania), but also of partnerships developed with institutions, specialists and memory communities in the Republic of Moldova.   

The exhibition "Realms of Memory in the Post-Totalitarian Society" will be open to the public from June 24 to August 24, 2025, in the upstairs lobby of the National Museum of History of Moldova (Chisinau, 31 August 1989 Street, 121A).


 




Independent Moldova
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Bessarabia and MASSR between the Two World Wars
Bessarabia and Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Period between the Two World Wars
Revival of National Movement
Time of Reforms and their Consequences
Abolition of Autonomy. Bessarabia – a New Tsarist Colony
Period of Relative Autonomy of Bessarabia within the Russian Empire
Phanariot Regime
Golden Age of the Romanian Culture
Struggle for Maintaining of Independence of Moldova
Formation of Independent Medieval State of Moldova
Era of the
Great Nomad Migrations
Early Middle Ages
Iron Age and Antiquity
Bronze Age
Aeneolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Palaeolithic Age
  
September 25, 2025 – September 1, 2026
 
Over 2500 pieces made of precious metals with historic, artistic and symbolic value
  

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Summer schedule: daily
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Winter schedule: daily
10am – 5pm.
Closed on Mondays.
Entrance fees:  adults - 50 MDL, Pensioners, students - 20 lei, pupils - 10 MDL. Free access: enlisted men (...)

WiFi Free Wi-Fi Zone in the museum: In the courtyard of the National History Museum of Moldova there is Wi-Fi Internet access for visitors.


#Exhibit of the Month

The ceramic vessel set was discovered accidentally in October 2025 in the southwestern part of the village of Bălceana, Hâncești District, approximately 1.2 km from the Lăpușnița River. The archaeological materials were recovered by the National Archaeological Agency...

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

 



The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

menu
The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC