#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.

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

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

(Permanent Exhibition “History and Civilization”)

This compartment of exhibition reflects the history of Bessarabia in the modern time. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812 (that were fought in the area of Romanian Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia and ended with the conclusion of the Treaty of Bucharest of 16 / 28 May 1812) the Russian Empire annexed the eastern part of the Principality of Moldova (the territory between the Prut and Dniester) and incorrectly extended the name of Bessarabia to all the lands between the Danube and Hotin (the Turkish rayahs of Hotin, Bender, and Ismail were also annexed). The exhibition also aims to reflect the main events which determined the evolution of Bessarabia for 106 years of foreign domination.

The compartment „Bessarabia in the 19th Century”

Administration. One of the main instruments of the imperial policy of integration, standardization, and / or Russification was the provincial administration, a phenomenon illustrated by the Statute of 1828 or "The Concise Code of Laws" by Andronache Donici (1850). The second half of the 19^th century - the era of "great reforms" - have led to the establishment of "zemstvo" in Bessarabia (1869) - a body of local self-administration, focused primarily on the issues related to the daily needs of the population: taxes, welfare, education, medicine, agriculture. In this sense, it should be noted the construction of the impressive buildings of the hospital in Costiujeni and the Zemstvo Museum.

Chisinau is presented in the exhibition as a place of residence of the tsarist military administration, and then as the administrative center of the region (since 1818). Russification has influenced even the architectural look of the town. The intense process of urbanization can be traced through the exhibits: the architectural project of a house from Chisinau, town views of the times: Shumsky's House, Swiss Hotel, as well as the images of outstanding persons: Carol Schmidt, a mayor of Chisinau (1877-1903) and the city's chief architect Alexander Bernardazzi, both of which contributed greatly to the modernization of the city.

Economy. The main features of Bessarabian economy in the period between 1812 and 1918 are presented by items related to agricultural and industrial work. They confirm the almost exclusively agrarian character of the economy of the province, which to some extent also contributed to the process of Russification of the population.

Cultural and scientific life of the province is marked by the appearance of local press. It is official press written almost entirely in Russian. However, there are some publications in Romanian: "Buletinul Eparhiei Chișinăului" („Bulletin of the Eparchy of Chisinau") (1868) "Luminatorul" ("Luminary") (1913), "Cuvant Moldovenesc" ("Moldavian Word") (1915). Other original exhibits reflect the formation of educational system in Bessarabia (a photograph of a group of teachers from the Chisinau Non-Classical Secondary School, "The Initial Course of Romanian language" by I. Doncev (1865), various certificates of graduation) and the activities of some scientific societies from Bessarabia ("Report on the status and activities of the Bessarabian Church Historical and Archaeological Society", "Proceedings of the Bessarabian Society of Naturalists").

In the segment of the exhibition devoted to the rural and urban life of the province the original household items and furniture are incorporated into the reconstructions of a shop showcase, a living room, and a study of the 19^th century. Russian influences in the urban environment clearly contrasts with preserved traditionalism in the villages of Bessarabia.