#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.).

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

"When Sweden was ruled from Moldova"

1 - 20 February 2013

On February 1, 2013, in the upstairs hall of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova there was opened the exhibition „When Sweden was ruled from Moldova" designed and built by the Royal Armory (Stockholm) and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova. Curators of the exhibition: Dr. Per Sandin and Dr. hab. Elena Ploșnița.

It is dedicated to the 300th anniversary of the Kalabalik at Varnița and Swedish King Charles XII's stay in Bender and Varnița from 1709 to 1713. The exhibition aims to elucidate a significant joint part of the Moldavian-Swedish history related to the name of the brave King Charles XII and offers a retrospective of the events that took place in the early 18^th century.

Content of the exhibition is divided into two parts. The first part brings together images of various items from the collections that are part of the national heritage of Sweden: portrait of the Swedish king; Charles XII's personal items (cassette, wig, otter-skin cap, black felt hat); panorama of Constantinople; photograph of the monument dedicated to the king at Varnița, which was made in 1920s; weapons of the past.

The second part of the exhibition includes authentic objects from the collections of National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova. Among these there are "Plan of Swedish king's camp" made by B. Eitner in 1840 and a collection of objects (nails, candleholder, horseshoe, cannonballs, window glass, ceramic and glass vessels of the 17^th - 18^th centuries) discovered during archaeological excavations at Varnița in 1993.

The exhibition is accompanied by an essay on the life of Swedish King Charles XII by Dr. Per Sandin, in Romanian, English, and Russian, and a leaflet in Romanian and English prepared by Elena Ploșnița.

The exhibition will be open to visitors until February 20, 2013.

#Exhibit of the Month

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

"When Sweden was ruled from Moldova"

1 - 20 February 2013

#Exhibit of the Month