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#Exhibit of the Month

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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.

Virtual Tour


Branch Museums

Lazo Mansion Museum in the Piatra village (Orhei District)

The Lazo family mansion is located in the village of Piatra, Orhei district. It is registered as a monument of architecture and history from the second half of the nineteenth century, with national significance, protected by the state.

Starting with 1990, by Order of the Ministry of Culture no. 220 from August 1, the mansion is transferred to the administration of the National Museum of History of Moldova, with the status of branch.

The mansion was built between 1862-1865 by Ioan and Matilda Lazo, representatives of a noble family of Bessarabia. Two generations of the Lazo family spent part of their lives in this house. In 1894 Gheorghe and Elena Lazo sold the Piatra mansion. Until 1940, the Lazo family house passed through the hands of several owners. After 1945, the house is nationalized and used as a school. In 1974, the rebuilt mansion became a memorial museum devoted to the civil war hero in Russia, Serghei Lazo. In 1993 the museum was reorganized into the Lazo family mansion. Between 2007 and 2018, the mansion underwent an extensive rehabilitation process, opening its doors to the public on December 2, 2018.


The new exhibition in the Lazo family mansion "Bessarabian Environment - the Piatra mansion - interconnection of historical personalities", includes a living room, a dining room, a library office and a children's room. The memorial and typological pieces from the new exhibition present the material and moral ambience of the Lazo Family Mansion with several generations of this noble family, with their epoch, with all the complexities of life, emotions and facts intertwined with the history of the personalities owners of the Mansion, of living people with their visions and occupations who have been in our history and have contributed to the development of the Basarabian society over the centuries.

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Visiting hours:
Monday - Sunday: 10.00-17.00

Friday closed

Official Holidays - January 1, 7 and 8, March 8, the first and second day of Easter, Parents Day, May 1 and 9, August 27 and 31, December 25 - the museum is closed.

Admission Fees

Adults - 50 MDL
Pensioners, Students - 20 MDL
School students - 10 MDL

Free admission:

Preschool children (up to the age of 7), children from residential institutions, children with disabilities (up to the age of 18) and their companion, military personnel, official delegations and delegations of a cultural nature (within the limits of the museum's operating hours), employees of the national museum network, the Ministry of Culture and national institutions in the field of cultural heritage, holders of ICOM and ICOMOS cards, war veterans (pursuant to Law no. 317/2024), for the participants in the liquidation of the consequences of the damage at the Chernobyl C.A.E.

Free admission for all visitors: the last Thursday of every month

Costs of guided tours:

For a group of 5 - 30 people:

Adults - 150 MDL
Pupils, Students, Pensioners - 100 MDL

Guided tours are free for children from residential institutions and military conscripts

 



 

 


Independent Moldova
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Bessarabia and MASSR between the Two World Wars
Bessarabia and Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Period between the Two World Wars
Revival of National Movement
Time of Reforms and their Consequences
Abolition of Autonomy. Bessarabia – a New Tsarist Colony
Period of Relative Autonomy of Bessarabia within the Russian Empire
Phanariot Regime
Golden Age of the Romanian Culture
Struggle for Maintaining of Independence of Moldova
Formation of Independent Medieval State of Moldova
Era of the
Great Nomad Migrations
Early Middle Ages
Iron Age and Antiquity
Bronze Age
Aeneolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Palaeolithic Age
  
  

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Summer schedule: daily
10am – 6pm.

Winter schedule: daily
10am – 5pm.
Closed on Mondays.
Entrance fees:  adults - 50 MDL, Pensioners, students - 20 lei, pupils - 10 MDL. Free access: enlisted men (...)

WiFi Free Wi-Fi Zone in the museum: In the courtyard of the National History Museum of Moldova there is Wi-Fi Internet access for visitors.


#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...

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

 



The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC

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The National Museum of History of Moldova takes place among the most significant museum institutions of the Republic of Moldova, in terms of both its collection and scientific reputation.
©2006-2026 National Museum of History of Moldova
Visit museum 31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
Phones:
Secretariat: +373 (22) 24-43-25
Department of Public Relations and Museum Education: +373 (22) 24-04-26
Fax: +373 (22) 24-43-69
E-mail: office@nationalmuseum.md
Technical Support: info@nationalmuseum.md
Web site administration and maintenance: Andrei EMILCIUC