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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.

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Publications Journal „Tyragetia"   vol. X [XXV], nr. 2


Dimitrie Cantemir's posthumous mystery
ISSN 1857-0240
E-ISSN 2537-6330

Dimitrie Cantemir's posthumous mystery

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. X [XXV], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie

Keywords: Dimitrie Cantemir, Edmond Ciuntu, Mikhail Ostrovsky, Ion Dic, the Greek Monastery of St. Nicholas, the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Moscow, Romania.

Abstract: Frequently not only lifetime, but the posthumous biography of any historical figure becomes overgrown by numerous myths, legends and mysteries. The biography of the outstanding thinker of the first quarter of the 18th century, the Moldavian ruler Dimitrie Cantemir was no exception.

The current publication is dedicated to the research of one of the least developed areas of Cantemirology - the study of the authenticity of the Moldavian prince's remains, which were transferred by the USSR Government to Romania and reburied in Iași in June 1935.

On the basis of numerous archival documents taken from the archives of the ministries of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Romania, for the first time introduced into the scientific use, the author convincingly and gravely substantiates a version that that the transferred remains do not belong to Dimitrie Cantemir.

List of illustrations:
Fig. 1. Nicolae Iorga, Nicolae Titulescu and the members of the governmental commission meet the coffin with the remains of D. Cantemir. Constanța, June 1935.
Fig. 2. The letter of thanks signed by N. Titulescu, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Romania, addressed to M. Ostrosky, the Ambassador of the Soviet Union in Romania, in connection with the transfer of the remains of Dimitrie Cantemir.
Fig. 3. Project of the building of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry. Authors: A. Vesnin, V. Vesnin, S. Lyashenko. 1934.
Fig. 4. Project of the building of the People's Commissariat for Heavy Industry. Authors: I. Fomin, P. Abrosimov, M. Minkus. 1934.

Виктор Цвиркун
Anna Cantacuzino-Sheremeteva: Unknown pages of biography
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XV [XXX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Victor Țvircun
Unknown pages from the biography of Ivan Ilyinsky-Yaroslavets, secretary of Dimitrie Cantemir
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XVII [XXXII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Виктор Цвиркун
Unknown pages of the biography of C.A. Cantemir
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie



 

 

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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#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

menu
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