#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

Japanese-style ancestral tradition

2 March 2019

The Mărțișor, celebrated each year in the early days of March, symbolizes the renaissance and the arrival of the spring and makes us feel the energy of a new beginning.

At the National Museum of History of Moldova this event was marked on March 2 by the „Japanese-style ancestral tradition" event organized by the Public Relations Department, Museum Education (coordinator: Natalia Popovici) in collaboration with the Youth Station of the Young Tourists from Chișinău municipality and Origami Center Moldova.

The cultural and educational event has provoked students to engage affectionately and effectively in the making of Japanese-style Mărțișor, to learn customs, traditions and legends related to the feast of the Mărţişor, which reminds us of the important role that small objects have and which were considered true talismans for luck and health.

The event began with a show of music, poetry and dance, followed by a workshop where students were encouraged to make origami Mărțișor. The activity has been a real success: the useful and the pleasure were harmoniously combined, while the creative thinking of participants was stimulated through play, learning and work. At the end of this meeting, dozens of Mărțișor-cranes took their flight, together with their creators, to the dear beings they were destined to...

The handcrafted Mărțișor brought the spring in the museum and gave everyone the feeling of rebirth, of beauty and of love.