 Events Archive
International Scientific Conference „The Chronology of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and early Roman Age in Central and South-East Europe: Problems and Perspectives”
Chişinău, 8-9 November 2018
The National Museum of History of Moldova in collaboration with the Moldova State University and the Ion Creangă State Pedagogical University with the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation organized the international scientific conference The Chronology of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and early Roman Age in Central and South-East Europe: Problems and Perspectives¶. The event was held from 8 to 9 November 2018 at the National Museum of History of Moldova and the Moldova State University.The conference was attended by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation scholars, as well as other researchers from Germany, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Republic of Moldova, and other countries. The topic selected for discussion approached one of the many, but very important facets of the history of European Barbaricum in the maturation and flourishing period of Greek-Roman civilization. Remained outside the parameters that define classical antiquity, a large part of the European continent, although it has been, in one way or another, in the orbit of the impulses that came from the world of Greek-Roman civilization, nevertheless had its own development paths. Against the background of complicated processes from the La Tène period and the early Roman Age, determined by multiple human mobility within this world and by important intercalations of Barbaricum with the Greco-Roman world, it has experienced the cultural interference which perception is in strict dependence on the exact determination of chronological references. It is not accidental that this question was given central attention throughout the entire study period of the subject. Beyond the enormous efforts that have been made over the centuries, resulted in important findings, there are many other problems that are just waiting for solutions that archaeologists are looking at with much optimism. In this sense, the optimism of researchers comes to be justified by both the diversification of the methods applied in cutting-edge science (based upon the effervescent evolution of technologies) and by the interdisciplinary character of modern studies. An update and a systematization of the results achieved over recent years, connected to the previous ones, are likely to provide a radiograph of the quality of the situation in the field, defining the momentary problems, but also designing forward-looking solutions. In this way, the planned conference at Humboldt-Kolleg represented an excellent opportunity for a new round of discussions dedicated to studying Barbaricum archaeology in the La Tène Period and the Early Imperial Roman Period. For more information: https://www.nationalmuseum.md/en/humboldt_kolleg/
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The item is the lower part of a leg of a festive table made of white and gray marble. In the upper part, it has a protrusion, similar to a Doric capital, on the horizontal platform of which a square recess is engraved, designed to fix the second part of the leg (upper). The lower part of the leg is made in an anthropomorphic style, and, in our opinion, there are two variants of identifying the depicted character. The first involves the image of the head of the young Heracles (Heracles - Ἡρακλῆς) (beardless), the most favorite hero of antiquity, wearing on his head the skin of the Nemean lion - Λέων της Νεμέας, a vicious monster from Greek mythology who lived in Nemea and was eventually killed by Heracles. The first labor of Heracles, of the twelve set by King Eurystheus (his cousin), was to kill the Nemean lion and bring his skin to the king. It is also known from Greek mythology that the lion of Nemea took the form of a beautiful woman in order to seduce the inhabitants of neighboring villages, who wanted to save the girl from danger. Upon entering the cave, a man saw the woman, who usually pretended to be wounded, and rushed to help her. When he approached her, the woman turned into a lion and killed him. Then the lion devoured the man, giving his bones to Hades - ᾍδης, the god of Hell, who lived in the kingdom of shadows. The second version of the anthropomorphic image interpretation suggests Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia in the second half of the 4th century BC, one of the most famous heroes of the Greek world, who sometimes is depicted as Hercules - wearing a lion's skin. Some researchers consider the custom of wearing the skin of a slain lion a sign of royal power. The word βασιλεύς itself, translated from ancient Greek, means "walking the path of the lion", that is, the king. This title was held by the Greek kings from the Homeric period, and later, starting from the 7th century AD - by the Byzantine emperors.
