#Exhibit of the Month

The metal vessel was likely used as a funerary urn. It was found together with another vessel, shaped like a shell and used as a lid for the urn, in a landslide along the road within the Yahorlyk Nature Reserve, Dubăsari District. The village of Yahorlyk is located at the mouth of the stream of the same name, a left tributary of the Dniester River.
The vessel belongs to the Hemmoo type (or Eggers 63) and is a rare find in the late ancient sites of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Researchers consider this type of vessel to be of Italic, Gallo-Italic, or Mediterranean origin, frequently used as a funerary urn or burial inventory by the Bastarnae. Upon discovery, the vessel was reportedly filled with "earth and burnt bones."

The vessel was found together with a brass sheet vessel that had undulated or fluted walls. It has a height of 14.9 cm (without the base ring). The diameter of the vessel's body is 19.5 cm, and the total height is 16.2 cm. The rim of the vessel flares outward with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The vessel is made from thin brass sheet, only 0.1 cm thick. The upper part of the vessel is modestly ornamented. The middle of the rim, on the exterior, has a shallow horizontal line incised. The transition from the rim to the body is marked by a wide groove, 0.3 cm in width. From this groove, the rim thickens to 0.25 cm. On the upper part of the rim, on two symmetrically placed sides, semicircular handles with stepped bases were cut out. The handles are 2.2 cm in height and 5.1 cm in width. Including the "steps" at the base, the handles are 6.1 cm wide. In the middle of each handle, a circular elongated hole was made for the attachment of a handle, measuring 1.2 x 1.5 cm.

The ornamentation on the upper part of the vessel's body consists of two bands, each formed by two parallel incised lines, spaced 0.2 to 0.4 cm apart. The interval between the two bands is 0.9 cm. The vessel's handle is semicircular, mobile, fairly thick, rectangular in cross-section (0.8 x 0.9 cm), and made from a rounded brass bar. The ends of the handle are thinned to 0.6 cm and widened to 0.9 cm over a length of 2.6 cm, resembling bird heads. On the median part of the bar, incised marks resembling Roman numerals IX and XI are present. The bottom of the vessel was made from a separate brass sheet, worked by pressing on a lathe. Evidence of this process is the indentation from the lathe's fixing rod, preserved in the central part of the vessel's bottom. Surrounding this indentation is an ornament consisting of two bands of concentric lines, with diameters of 1.8 cm and 5.9 cm, respectively. The lower part of the vessel is raised and rests on a ringed base, formed by shaping the vessel's walls and bending the piece that formed the actual bottom. This base has a diameter of 8.7 cm.

For the North-West Pontic and East-Carpathian regions, several scattered sites or points where fragments of metal vessels were discovered, used as funerary inventory or urns, should be mentioned. These include discoveries from the funerary complexes of flat necropolises dated to the first centuries AD, at Hansca-Lutăria II and Dănceni-Ialoveni. Here, excavations identified noble graves with fragments of bronze vessels with metal handles, similar to the vessel from Yahorlyk.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“World Press Photo”

November 18 - December 9, 2020

Chişinău will host for the fourth time the World Press Photo International Exhibition 2020, the most important photographic competition in the world. The event is organized by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

The annual photography competition awards photographers around the world for the best images that have contributed to the development of visual journalism in the last year. Professional photographers, photojournalists and documentary photographers take part in the competition.

For the 2020 competition, the jury of 17 professionals in the field of photography selected the best images and stories that marked last year. The jury established as a key theme of the events of 2019 the protests and the role of young people in promoting changes. The stories regarding environmental issues also stood out, being represented not only in the Environment category, but also in other categories such as Contemporary Issues, Nature or News; all the images emphasize the importance of the subject.

The general public is invited to discover the stories behind the winning photos at the National Museum of History of Moldova, from November 19 to December 9, 2020.

Useful information about the event:

● Opening of the exhibition: November 18, 11:00, National Museum of History of Moldova, entrance by invitations.
● Visiting hours for the general public: from 10:00 to 17:00. Friday - closed.
● Tickets can be purchased at the museum.
● Ticket price: 10 MDL for adults; 5 MDL for students.

The winning photos were selected from a number of 73,996 works by 4,282 photographers from 125 countries. The jury nominated 44 photographers from 24 countries: Algeria, Australia, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Peru, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA.

The annual World Press Photo International Exhibition is travelling around the world. It was held in almost 100 venues in about 45 countries and was visited by over 4 million people at each edition. Before arriving in Chişinău, the exhibition was organized in Amsterdam, Mexico City, Bari, Seville, Saguenay, Turin, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Valencia, and Dortmund.

The first World Press Photo exhibition took place in 1955, when a group of Dutch photographers organized a competition to exhibit their work in front of an international audience. Over the years, it has become one of the most prestigious photography and visual journalism competitions in the world.

The exhibition, which brings together the best photos taken in 2019, was opened on November 18 in the National Museum of History of Moldova. The event was attended by accredited ambassadors to Chişinău, IJC partners, and journalists; all safety measures were followed in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic.

In Chişinău, the exhibition was organized for the first time in 2017.

The World Press Photo Exhibition is organized in Chişinău by the Independent Journalism Center (IJC) with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

#Exhibit of the Month

The Metal Vessel from Yahorlyk on the Middle Dniester

“World Press Photo”

November 18 - December 9, 2020

#Exhibit of the Month