#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

“Simplu”

20–25 January 2026

From 20 to 25 January 2026, on the occasion of the launch of the poetry volume Simplu by journalist Ina Guțu, the National Museum of History of Moldova will host the Simplu painting exhibition by Ina Guțu. The exhibition aims to present a unified artistic project in which poetry and painting correlate. The book brings together poems and visual works that explore themes such as fragility, love, loss and the rediscovery of the self, offering an intimate and concise vision of the human experience.

The exhibition showcases the author's work in 40 paintings, presenting a selection of works that resonate with the book's themes. The paintings do not literally illustrate the poems; rather, they develop visual variations of moods, memory-images and symbolic accents. By putting these two artistic media in dialogue, the project invites the visitor to follow the trajectory from the page's intimate voice to the work's public presence.

The paintings complement the volume launched by Ina Guțu, because in this universe of word and image the meeting of verse and canvas builds a shared language. Her work reflects the place where poetry provides rhythm and entry into an emotional state, while painting opens the visual space of feeling. The volume Simplu was edited by filmmaker Leontina Vatamanu, who also wrote the foreword, and the book's design and layout were carried out by Andrei Ichim-collaborations that make the book an aesthetic object complementary to the visual exhibition. The works on display are predominantly acrylic on canvas, a technique that amplifies the immediacy of the artistic gesture and sets the image's texture in dialogue with the density of the text.

The Simplu exhibition can be visited from 20 to 25 January 2026 at the entrance to the Cărturești bookstore inside the National Museum of History of Moldova, 31 August 1989 Street, No. 121 A, Chișinău.

#Exhibit of the Month

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

“Simplu”

20–25 January 2026

#Exhibit of the Month