#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.).

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Events Archive

Inauguration of the "Bessarabians in the Gulag" exhibition in GNAS

July 6, 2023

On July 6, the "Bessarabians in the Gulag" exhibition was inaugurated in the Great National Assembly Square, where the shocking testimonies of the victims of the Stalinist deportations from Bessarabia are exhibited. Two train cars, identical to those used for deportations, were brought into GNAS, giving the public the opportunity to get up close to this tragic part of our history.

The exhibition organized by the Government of the Republic of Moldova, in collaboration with the National Museum of History of Moldova, the National Archives Agency and the National Library of the Republic of Moldova, presents authentic and old images that illustrate the unfortunate fate of the deported people. One of the carriages hosts a thematic exhibition with pieces from the National Museum of History of Moldova, including a series of pieces that were part of the exhibition "Remembering childhood, the testimonies of Bessarabian deportees" inaugurated at the Arbor Culture and Arts Association in 2022, curated by Victoria Nagy Vajda. In the other carriage, the documentary film "Siberia in Bones" will be shown, which will be broadcast every day at 18:00 and 20:00.

At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, Sergiu Prodan, the Minister of Culture, emphasized the importance of bringing these wagons not only to the Government, but also to every locality in Moldova. He highlighted that these dramatic images represent the real lives of people and families who were brutally deported. The Minister expressed the wish that, within a year, the Ministry of Culture, with the support of the Parliament and the Government, would help the National Museum of History of Moldova in its efforts to provide support to every museum in the country and, where it does not exist, to establish at least one chamber of memory, so that every locality in the Republic of Moldova has access to this important page of our history.

July 6 marks the Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Stalinism, coinciding with the moment when the biggest wave of Stalinist deportations took place. On the night of July 5-6, 1949, the Soviet regime deported tens of thousands of Bessarabian peasants to forced labor camps in Siberia, confiscating their property. In the period 1941-1951, three waves of deportations took place, and historians' estimates indicate that the total number of deported Bessarabians would be between 80 and 120 thousand. Through this exhibition, we aim to bring to the attention of the public these tragic events of our past and to honor the memory of the victims of these inhuman atrocities.

The "Bessarabians in the Gulag" exhibition is open to visitors from July 6-30, until 21:00.