#Exhibit of the Month

The exhibited necklace of beads originates from Funerary Complex No. 6 of Kurgan No. 4, excavated in 1982 by Dr. Habil. Eugen SAVA near the town of Taraclia. The beads were found in the chest area of the deceased, indicating that they had been worn as a necklace and had remained in their original position within the funerary assemblage.
The necklace consists of 11 elements made entirely of Egyptian faience. Eight of the beads are spherical and decorated with vertical incisions forming between 14 and 21 raised ribs. Their diameters range from 13 to 20 mm. Two additional elements are scarab representations measuring 23.5 × 19.5 mm, while the final component is a flattened cylindrical pendant bead featuring a central vertical groove and measuring 22 × 9 mm. The objects range in color from light blue to dark blue and violet hues, reflecting the natural deterioration and glaze variations characteristic of Egyptian faience.
Egyptian faience is an artificial quartz-based material coated with an alkaline glaze, typically blue or blue-green in color. It was widely used in Ancient Egypt and later spread throughout the Mediterranean and Pontic regions through trade networks. During the first centuries AD, such objects served as important indicators of cultural and economic contacts between the Mediterranean world and the communities of the North Pontic region.
Owing to its typological, technological, and symbolic characteristics, the Taraclia necklace is an exceptionally valuable artifact for the study of intercultural relations, the circulation of prestige goods, and the funerary practices of the Sarmatian communities during the first centuries AD (1st-2nd centuries AD).

Virtual Tour

Events Archive

Actions devoted to the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism

August 18, 2023

On August 18, 2023, in the context of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, the photo-documentary exhibition „In the shackles of Siberia. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941, 1944-1953” of the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, NMHM.

With the signing, on August 23, 1939, of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the secret additional protocol on the division of Europe into spheres of influence between Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, followed the outbreak of the Second World War, the destruction of sovereign states and the death of millions victims in extermination camps, the Gulag, deportations and illegal arrests.

The exhibition „In the shackles of Siberia. Bessarabian children deported by the totalitarian-communist regime during the years 1940-1941, 1944-1953” presents aspects of the lives of the most innocent victims of the Soviet Gulag – children and minors, descendants of the families of „enemies of the Soviet people”. The photo-documentary testimonies and documents brought to the attention of the visitors reproduce the emotional sensitivity, the experiences and the traumatic memories of a generation in relation to their own past from the Stalinist period.

The opening was inaugurated by the President of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Detainees from the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Alexandru Postică, who warmly welcomed the presence of the exhibition within the Association’s commemorative events. The head of the branch Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, NMHM, Dr. Ludmila Cojocaru, referred to the need to strengthen efforts to disseminate historical knowledge with reference to the totalitarianisms of the 20^th century. Representatives of the generation whose childhood was spent in special settlements in Siberia and Kazakhstan shared their memories from the Gulag and drew attention to the importance of perpetuating this memory across generations as an act of justice for those wronged by all totalitarian regimes.

The event was organized by the Museum of Victims of Deportations and Political Repressions, NMHM and the Institute of History, MSU in partnership with the Association of Former Deportees and Political Detainees from Moldova and the Public Association Center of Excellence „Pro Memoria” Institute.

The exhibition can be visited at the headquarters of the Association of Former Deportees and Political Detainees from the Republic of Moldova (Str. Mihail Kogălniceanu 52/A) between August 18 and September 28, 2023.

Through these actions, the National History Museum of Moldova joins the international campaign carried out in Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine initiated by the International Platform Common Remembrance.