Manufactured in 1902 by AG vorm Siedel & Nauman in Dresden, Germany.
Dimensions: Length - 38 cm, Width - 35 cm, Height - 20 cm. Weight - 16 kg. It entered the museum collection in 1984, transferred from the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History.
The typewriter features a standard carriage mounted on ball bearings and rollers, along with a keyboard equipped with 42 keys. These contain two complete sets of Latin and Cyrillic alphabets, punctuation marks, numbers, and mathematical symbols, enabling the typing of 126 characters. Beneath the metal casing, the type bars are arranged in a fan-like pattern, holding embossed characters and ink ribbon rollers. When the keys are pressed, the type bars strike the inked ribbon, imprinting characters onto the paper tensioned in the machine's roller system. The side panels are elegantly decorated with refined cast-iron elements in the Art Nouveau style, displaying the brand name - "Ideal." The Polyglott model, featuring a bilingual keyboard patented in the United Kingdom by Max Klaczko from Riga, Latvia, was produced between 1902 and 1913, marking the first typewriter capable of writing in two languages. The "Ideal Polyglott" typewriter was actively sold in the Russian Empire and gained significant popularity in Poland, Bulgaria, and Serbia. The typewriter - a mechanical device used for printing text directly onto paper - ranks among the most important inventions of the modern era, as it revolutionized communication. From the late 19th century to the early 21st century, it became an indispensable tool, widely used by writers, in offices, for business correspondence, and in private homes. The peak of typewriter sales occurred in the 1950s when the average annual sales in the United States reached 12 million units. In November 2012, the British Brother factory produced what it claimed to be the last typewriter, which was donated to the Science Museum in London. The advent of computers, word processing software, printers, and the decreasing cost of these technologies led to the typewriter's disappearance from the mainstream market, turning it into a museum exhibit. June 23 marks Typewriter Day, commemorating the date when American journalist and inventor Christopher Latham Sholes patented his typewriter. This day celebrates the simple yet revolutionary device that has become history, as well as the remarkable literary achievements it has enabled since 1868.
Early medieval bronze amulets representing horsemen from the Carpathian-Dniester region
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Among the materials related to the early Middle Ages in the Carpathian-Dniester region, which have been discovered during archaeological excavations and reconnaissance, as well as among chance fi nds there are bronze amulets depicting a rider on a horse. The area of distribution of these bronze fi gures of riders includes extensive regions, starting from the North Caucasus and the middle reaches of the Don in the East to Central and South-Eastern Europe in the West. Most of the fi nds were discovered in the south of Russia, in Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary.
On the territory of the Prut-Dniester region (Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) it was found 24 bronze fi gures of riders (see fi g. 1) belonging to different typological models. They were found in the following settlements: Hansca (Ialoveni District) - 3 fi gures, Păhărniceni-Petruha - 2 objects, Lucășeuca and Furceni (Orhei District), Ocnița (Ocnița district), Briceni - 2 objects, Caracușenii Noi (Briceni District), Popeștii de Sus (Drochia District), Tătărăuca Veche - 2 objects, Balinți and Inundeni (Soroca District), Tarasova (Rezina District), Rezeni (Ialoveni District), Porumbrei and Schinoșica (Cimișlia District), Enichioi (Cantemir District), Dezghingea and Capaclia (Gagauzia) and Bolgrad (Odessa region) (see fi g. 1). Seven bronze fi gures, presented at «Violity» Auction & Antiques in Kiev, may also be originated from the Prut-Dniester region (see fi g. 6/1-6).
Analysis of bronze figures from this region allowed us to identify four types of objects. The fi rst type, or the Hansca I type, includes 7 amulets (see fi g. 2/1-2; 3/1-5, 7). All fi gures, but one, were found in the Prut-Dniester interfl uve. They depict a rider sitting on a small horse saddled, turning to the left. The rider is depicted in profi le. The position of his feet indicates the presence of stirrups. Rider is shod in boots (?) with an upturned toe; his legs touch the front and hind legs of the horse. In his right hand he holds the reins, and in the left hand, strongly bent at the elbow and pressed against his chest, he holds a short knife or dagger. The upper part of the fi gure (a horseman's head) has a through hole for hanging. In our opinion, the relative chronology of this type of bronze fi gures of horsemen (Hansca I type), which have no analogues in other regions, may cover a period of the 10th - 13th centuries, and absolute dating is the 10th - 11th centuries.
The second type (the Hansca II type) includes 15 riders' fi gures (see fi g. 4/1-2; 5/1-12). They depict a horse and rider. The rider's body is turned to the left; he is shown from the front. His both hands are holding a long, slightly curved saber. The rider is shod in short shoes, which does not touch the horse's legs, as in the fi gures of the first type. Amulets of this type have analogies in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and other countries. They belong to the 10th - 11th centuries and, quite possibly, to the beginning of the 12th century.
The last two types of bronze fi gures (the Hansca III and Bolgrad IV types) are unique in style. The fi gure relating to the Hansca III type (fi g. 6/7) shows a rider turned to the left; it is a schematic image. At the front of the horse there is a tamga in the form of a petal and at the back of the horse there is the same tamga in the form of a drop (?). The bronze fi gure found in Bolgrad (the Bolgrad IV type) (fi g. 6/8) depicts a rider turned to the right. In his left hand he holds the reins and in his right hand he holds perhaps hunting eagle. These bronze fi gures have no direct analogies. The authors attribute the appearance of these categories of objects in the regions east of the Carpathians to the penetration of various groups of the Alanian population in the 2nd half of the 1st millennium and the fi rst centuries of the 2nd millennium AD. Their presence north of the mouth of the Lower Danube is evidenced by written sources and place names.
List of illustrations:
Fig. 1. Map of the spread of bronze amulets representing horsemen in the East Carpathian region. Type I: 1 - Hansca; 2, 3 - Briceni; 4 - Lucășeuca; 5 - Păhărniceni-Petruha; 6 - Schinoșica; 7 - Enichioi. Type II: 8 - Hansca; 9 - Ocnița; 10 - Caracușenii Noi; 11, 12 - Tătărăuca Veche; 13 - Balinți; 14 - Inundeni; 15 - Popeștii de Sus; 16 - Tarasova; 17 - Furceni; 18 - Păhărniceni; 19 - Rezeni; 20 - Porumbrei; 21 - Dezghingea; 22 - Capaclia; 25 - Stăvărăști. Type III: 23 - Hansca. Type IV: 24 - Bolgrad.
Fig. 2. Bronze amulets representing horsemen of the Hansca I type: 1 - Hansca; 2 - Briceni.
Fig. 6. Bronze amulets representing horsemen of the II type (1-6), III type (7) and IV type (8): 1-6 - «Violity» Auction & Antiques, Kiev; 7 - Hansca; 8 - Bolgrad.
Gheorghe Postică
Elena Ploșnița, Concepte muzeografice cu profil de istorie: retrospectivă și perspectivă. Biblioteca "Tyragetia", Chișinău, 2008, 248p.
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IV [XIX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Ion Tentiuc
Sergiu Matveev, Procesele etno-culturale din spațiul carpato-nistrean în secolele II-XIV. Istoriografia sovietică. Chișinău: Pontos, 2009, 230 p. text + 5 tabele
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IV [XIX], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Gheorghe Postică
The early medieval spirituality in the Prut-Nistru space
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. II [XVII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Gheorghe Postică, Ion Tentiuc
The metal-weight economy in the Carpathian-Dniester area in the 9th-11th centuries (archaeological contributions)
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XVIII [XXXIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Ion Tentiuc
Les carreaux des poêles avec l’images heraldiques de Căușeni
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. III [XVIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Manufactured in 1902 by AG vorm Siedel & Nauman in Dresden, Germany. Dimensions: Length - 38 cm, Width - 35 cm, Height - 20 cm. Weight - 16 kg. It entered the museum collection in 1984, transferred from the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History...
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.
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.
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.