#Exhibit of the Month

This is a challenge cup, which used to be awarded to the winners in sports competitions between the teams-members of the Dynamo Voluntary Sports Society, organized by the City Committee responsible for physical culture and sports in Chișinău.

The voluntary sports organizations (DSO: Dobrovol'noe sportivnoe obshhestvo) were created in the mid-30s of the twentieth century in the Soviet Union and over the years had spread in the socialist states. They brought together groups of amateur athletes from district, regional and republican enterprises and educational institutions based on the territorial principle. They were engaged in the education of the young generation in the field of physical culture, sports and tourism in order to solve the problems of the development of mass physical culture. The winners used to be awarded with diplomas, badges, sports medals of various categories and a multitude of sports cups.

The sports cup presented in this exhibition has the shape of a decorative vase and consists of three parts. The upper part, cylindrical in shape, consists of ten openwork components, the decor of which represents vines with bunches of grapes; it is topped with a hemispherical lid. The upper part is missing an element, usually a sculpture, symbolizing the field of athletics corresponding to the competition. The central part is shaped like a lidded bowl with richly ornamented handles. On its surface the inscription is engraved in Russian: City Committee for Physical Culture and Sports. Challenge prize in athletics among the teams of the Dynamo Voluntary Sports Society, Chișinău. 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951. The third part, which is the foot of the cup, has a band decorated in relief with stylized flowers and fruits with niello.

Accession: MNIM, FB-8736
Metal: silver-plated brass
Dimensions: 300 x 230 x 210 mm.

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Presentation of the book “History of Bessarabia. Vol. 1: Preludes. From Paleolithic to the end of Antiquity” by Ion Ţurcanu

November 30, 2016

The National Museum of History of Moldova and the Editorial-Polygraphic House „Ştiința" have organized a book launch event on November 30, 2016, in the Blue Room of the museum, with presentation of publication signed by Țurcanu Ion - „Istoria Basarabiei. Vol. 1: Preludii. Din paleolitic până la sfârșitul Antichității" (History of Bessarabia. Vol.1: Prelude. From Palaeolithic until the end of Antiquity), Chișinău, 2016, 868 p. + 32 plates.

The first volume of History of Bessarabia covers a large historical period of Prut and Dniester Rivers interfluves' past - from the early Stone Age, about 1.5 million years ago, until the sunset of the ancient civilization in the 4th-6th centuries AD.

Part I, entitled Stone Age, which commonly is called prehistory and chronologically is the largest historical period, highlights the emergence and evolution of human society with all the complexity of events that characterize it: physical evolution of man, technological progress, great changes in social relations, spiritual culture.

In Part II, Age of Metals, dated between about the second half of 4th millennia BC and the 3rd century BC, known as proto history, introduces Bronze Age cultures in Bessarabia, then describes the Thracian civilization in this region and the presence of the Scythians.

Part III, Classical Antiquity, covers the history of Greek and Roman cities of Tyras and Nikonion at the Lower Dniester, presents testimonies of the Getae-Dacian civilization in it's most developed stage and the habitat of free Dacian from Bessarabia, and temporary stay in this space of migrating peoples. The presentation ends with a description of daily life of the local Dacian-Roman population at the end of Antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

At the book launch event participated dr. hab. Eugen SAVA, general director of the National Museum of History of Moldova; dr. hab. Oleg LEVIŢCHI, director of the Center of Archaeology of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, ASM; dr., assoc. prof. Octavian MUNTEANU, head of Universal History Chair of the State Pedagogical University "Ion Creanga", Larisa CIOBANU, researcher at the Centre of Archaeology of the Institute of Cultural Heritage, ASM; Gheorghe PRINI, director of the editorial-polygraphic house „Știința"; researchers, museographers, scholars and artists.