#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.

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Book Launch: „Hansca: the medieval settlement in the Lăpușna Woods”, authors: Gheorghe POSTICĂ, Ion HÎNCU, / "Ion Creangă" State Pedagogical University of Chișinău; National Museum of Bukovina, Suceava. - Suceava: Ed. Karl A. Romstorfer

April 23, 2026

On April 23, 2026, in the Blue Hall, the National Museum of History of Moldova hosted the book launch: „Hansca: the medieval settlement in the Lăpușna Woods", authors: Gheorghe POSTICĂ, Ion HÎNCU, / "Ion Creangă" State Pedagogical University of Chișinău; National Museum of Bukovina, Suceava. - Suceava: Ed. Karl A. Romstorfer, 2025, 857 p.: ill. tab., Coord.: Sergiu Musteață, Constantin-Emil Ursu, - ISBN 978-630-6701-02-5.

Opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Habil. Sergiu Musteață, University Professor at the „Ion Creangă" State Pedagogical University of Chișinău, Dr. Constantin-Emil Ursu, General Director of the National Museum of Bukovina, Suceava, Romania, Dr. Habil. Eugen Sava, General Director of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Academician Andrei Eșanu, Principal Researcher at the Institute of History of the Moldova State University, Dr. Monica Dejan, Head of the Archaeology Sector of the National Museum of Bukovina, Suceava, Romania, Dr. Vladimir Vornic, General Director of the National Archaeological Agency, Dr. Aurel Zanoci, Associate Professor at the Moldova State University, and Prof. Univ. Dr. Habil. Gheorghe Postică, Head of the History, Archaeology, and Museology Section; Principal Researcher at the Institute of History of the Moldova State University.

The work „Hansca: The early medieval settlement in the Lăpușna Woods" was published by the "Karl A. Romstorfer" Publishing House in Suceava, by the National Museum of Bukovina in cooperation with the „Ion Creangă" State Pedagogical University of Chișinău, with the financial support of the Suceava County Council.

The monograph represents a synthesis of archaeological investigations conducted during 20 research campaigns from 1960 to 1991 at the early medieval settlement near the village of Hansca, Ialoveni district.

The work consists of two main sections: the analytical part, in which the medieval remains discovered at the Hansca settlement are methodically analyzed, and the documentary part, in which the identified archaeological complexes and artifacts are systemically presented.

Through the archaeological materials provided, the Hansca settlement is organically integrated into the group of medieval settlements defined in the historical area of the former Lăpușna land in the central part of the Prut-Dniester space, emerging as a genuine model of Romanian heritage at the eastern periphery of Eastern Romanity.