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.
Николай К. Анисюткин, Сергей Коваленко, Алиса Ларионова, Александр Очередной, Ксения Степанова, Андрей Чепалыга
Preliminary results of interdisciplinary research of the Early Paleolithic multilayered site of Bairaki in Transnistria in 2011- 2012
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VII [XXII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
The article is devoted to preliminary results of comprehensive research of the Early Paleolithic site of Bairaki, which was discovered in 2010 and investigated in 2011-2012. The work was conducted by a team of specialists from Russia and Republic of Moldova, including archaeologists (IHMC RAS, St. Petersburg; Institute of Cultural Heritage, ASM), geologists and paleogeographers (Institute of Geography and Geology RAS, Moscow). In the site there were found several layers of archaeological and paleontological finds associated with ancient deposits of the high 7th terrace above the flood plain of the Dniester.
According to the stratigraphy, there were two complexes - the early and the late. The first is associated with alluvial deposits, and the second - with the overlying ancient fossil soils. A few finds of the late complex are comparable to the stone artifacts of the "Dubăsari industry", the variety of regional Acheulian (500-700 thousands years old). More numerous finds of the early complex date back to the Late Eopleistocene (0.8-1.2 million years old), corre- sponding to the developed or classic Oldowan of Africa and Eurasia.
List of illustrations:
Fig. 1. A schematic map of the location of sites in the Lower Transnistria in the vicinity of Dubăsari: 1 - Bairaki; 2 - Bolshoy Fontan; 3 - Kretseshty.
Fig. 2. Section and plans of excavations in the Bairaki site. The section of the northeastern wall of the excavation.
Legend: 1 - Holocene layers; 2 - yellowish-brown loess loam; 3 - brown fossil soil; 4 - red-colored fossil soil; 5 - hydromorphic fossil soil; 6 - floodplain alluvium; 7 - oxbow deposits; 8 - deposits of channel alluvium; 9 - conglomerate. Plans of excavations in 2010, 2011 and 2012. The plan of the lower layer (excavation in 2012).
Fig. 3. 1 - General view of the ravine and site of Bairaki from the south; 2 - general view of the excavation from the opposite (western) slope of the gorge.
Fig. 4. Stone products of the late complex: 1 - flint pebble chopper (middle horizon); 2 - core with frost damage (upper horizon); 3 - slightly rounded scraper (upper horizon); 4 - Quina type retouched scraper on a fragment of flint (upper horizon); 5 - jasper pebble chopper (lower horizon).
Fig. 5. Stone products of the late complex: 1 - flint flake (middle horizon); 2 - retouched flint flake (middle horizon); 3 - core-like fragment scraper (middle horizon); 4 - lanceolate worked pebble (lower horizon); 5 - core with scraper working edge (upper horizon).
Fig. 6. Stone products of the early (Oldowan) complex: 1 - Cosăuți sandstone rounded lanceolate worked pebble; 2 - Cosăuți sandstone chopper with alternating treatment of the working edge; 3 - Devonian sandstone chopper with alternating treatment of the working edge; 4 - Cosăuți sandstone chopper with notched working edge.
Fig. 7. Stone products of the early (Oldowan) complex: 1-11 - flint flakes; 12 - a flake of quartz sandstone; 13-16 - nuclei and nucleoid forms (13 - with a scraping edge).
Fig. 9. Stone products of the early (Oldowan) complex: 1-5 - beaked burins (3 - combined with scraper); 6 - rounded and heavily crazed flint beaked point; 7 - almost rectangular scraper on a flint blade; 8 - beaked point on a Cosăuți sandstone pebble.
Николай К. Анисюткин
The stone industry particularities of the 3a layer from Trinca 1 grotto
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. III [XVIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Сергей Коваленко
On the Gravettian aspect of flint tools from the Cosăuţi multi-layered Upper Paleolithic site
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XVIII [XXXIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
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 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.
31 August 1989 St., 121 A, MD 2012, Chisinau, Republic of Moldova
