The exposed object, an "askos" type ceramic vessel, comes from the tumulus necropolis near the village of Ciumai, Taraclia district. The vessel was discovered in 2015 in a cenotaph tomb attributed to the Jamnaja culture, dated to the early Bronze Age (ca. 3300-2600 BC).
The vessel, with an obviously asymmetrical configuration, is hand-moulded from quality clay paste, having a smooth brown surface with gray spots. The body of the vessel is provided with a pronounced protrusion and a truncated neck with a wider opening towards the mouth. The vessel has a stem and is ornamented with three pairs of symmetrically placed relief appliqués. The height of the bowl is 15.5 cm, the diameter of the mouth is 11.4 cm, the diameter of the body is 15 cm and the diameter of the base is 7.5 cm. Such vessels in the archaeological literature are known as "askos" vessels, the respective term being of ancient Greek origin, denoting one of the primitive containers of the period - the bellows made of animal skin.
In prehistoric times, among some peoples, the bellows was transposed into ceramics, in these cases the basic features of the archaic leather vessel were preserved, acquiring a prominent convex shape with a stem and a flat bottom. From the original appearance of the bellows, the asymmetric mouth corresponding to the animal's neck has been preserved, and sometimes three or four legs, corresponding to the appendages of the flayed skin from the animal's legs. These vessels have lost their original zoomorphic character, entering as a new form in the inventory of Neo-Eneolithic ceramics. The first vessels of this type are attested in Greece, in the early Neolithic (ca. 5000-4500 BC) having the shape of cups or cups. In the Neo-Eneolithic Carpatho-Balkan cultures, the type of Aegean askos of short or tall form, with or without legs and with a handle, is found. Less often, they are provided with two mouths (one for filling and one for emptying) or they are off-center and provided with strangely shaped mouths. In the space between the Carpathians and the Dnieper, only tall forms of simple askos, without zoomorphic elements, are known. Askos-type vessels are present in various prehistoric cultures, especially in Southeast Europe and Anatolia.
Being often discovered in association with cult inventory, askos vessels could be an important indicator of use in religious ritual practices. Along with the zoomorphic, anthropomorphic and rhyton-type vessels (roughly conical container from which, in some ceremonies, liquids were drunk or poured), the askos were included in the category of vessels intended for worship, being related to libations (ritual act that consisted of tasting and then pouring a cup of wine, milk, etc. as homage to the deity).
“Requiem for the Romanian Peasant: the Peasants and Communism”
Opening: May 18, 2020
They have always been on the battlefield. They fought with the Tatars, with the Turks and the Russians, with droughts and floods, with village headmen and activists, with tax collectors and quotas. They have always been defeated and victorious, for their sacrifice always nourished the continuity of history. However, in the fight against the Communists, they lost completely, because it destroyed not only their lives, but also their roots. Without land, peasants lost their essence. They went to wander, left for the cities, leaving the land and the household to women and children, and the harvest to students and soldiers. Those left to work in the fields began to "steal" from public property (which was actually their own property). Today the sacrifice of the peasants revolted in 1949-1950 remains a romantic episode. The final uprisings of 1960-1962 resemble medieval sieges. The day of April 1962, when collectivization was decreed, resembles the fall of Constantinople. Just as the paintings of Hagia Sophia illustrate a world foreign to the one to come, the peasants in the reality of our time seem martyrs without halos. Killed by bullets or ideology, they are the most numerous and innocent prey of communism.
The exhibition "Requiem for the Romanian Peasant: the Peasants and Communism" was organized in March 2009 by the International Centre for Studies into Communism, part of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism and to the Resistance - Civic Academy Foundation on the occasion of the of the 60th anniversary of the forced collectivization of agriculture and the beginning of the disaster for the Romanian peasantry (Plenary of the Central Committee of the Romanian Workers' Party on 3-5 March 1949). The curator of the exhibition was the late Romulus Rusan, director of the International Centre for Studies into Communism.
By means of archival documents, genuine photographs and evidences of oral history, the exhibition reconstructs the world of a Romanian village, which disappeared as a result of forced collectivization imposed by the communist regime. One of the main elements of the exhibition is a map of the numerous peasant uprisings against collectivization and quotas that took place in 1949-1962.
The Timiş and Arad branches of the Association of Former Political Prisoners in Romania, the County Museum of History in Alexandria and many witnesses of the events, some of which became historians, also collaborated in the creation of the exhibition. The graphic design was made by the architects Octavian Carabela and Marius Marcu-Lapadat.
The exhibition was presented in several cultural institutions in Bucharest, Alba Iulia, Arad, Alexandria, Baia Mare, Brăila, Iaşi, Cluj, Timişoara, Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Oradea, Satu Mare and other cities in Romania and at the B.P. Hasdeu State University in Cahul.
The exhibition can be seen in the hall of the second floor of the National Museum of History of Moldova from May 18, 2020.
The exposed object, an "askos" type ceramic vessel, comes from the tumulus necropolis near the village of Ciumai, Taraclia district. The vessel was discovered in 2015 in a cenotaph tomb attributed to the Jamnaja culture, dated to the early Bronze Age (ca. 3300-2600 BC)...
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.
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.
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.