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.
The Cucuteni C pottery in the Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex (Formulation of the problem and a brief historiography)
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. X [XXV], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică Chișinău, 2016
Keywords: Cucuteni, Trypillia, Cucuteni C pottery, import, influence.
Abstract: The "Cucuteni C pottery" is a special term for a kind of Cucuteni pottery, injected by Hubert Schmidt. The earliest samples of this pottery are dated by the B1 stage. According to T. Movsha, this kind of pottery appeared at Cucuteni-Trypillia sites under the influence of Serednii Stig Culture. Another question is whether these contacts were important for developing of this kind of pottery, especially for the Trypillia B1 - Cucuteni A stages.
Samples of Serednyi Stig Culture from Cucuteni-Trypillia sites are innumerous. These sites are distributed on large area, but mainly in the western rather than eastern part, close to the Serednii Stig Culture area. For Trypillia B1- B2 - Cucuteni A-B stages the most of finds come from sites of the Soloncheny local group. At the Soloncheny and Myropillia sites this pottery is most similar to Steppe samples in terms of technology, stylistics and, partly, forms of pots. Some of samples may have been really imported of produced by the bearers of Serednii Stig Culture. But the appearing of Cucucteni C pottery at this time did not change the original Trypillia-Cucuteni traditions and the Serednii Stig Culture influence was limited. The use of cord decorations from BII stage may have been connected with the influence of Chernavoda I Culture. On the other hand, the Cucuteni C pottery was the main common feture of pottery assemblages at whole area inhabited by the Cucuteni-Trypillia people. The most realistic point of view is that the spreading of Cucuteni C pottery reflected more tribal than intercultural relations.
List of illustrations: Fig. 1. Pottery from Trypillia B1 sites: 1-4 - Neporotove 22; 5-9 - Berezivska GES (8а, 9а after Даниленко 1974); 10-14 - Vasyliivka (after Збенович, Шумова 1989); 15 - Daribany; 16 - Sabatynivka I. Fig. 2. Pottery of Serednii Stig Culture: 1-16 - Skelya stage; 17-24 - Stog stage. Fig. 3. Cucuteni C pottery from Kolomyitsiv Yar. Fig. 4. Cucuteni C pottery from Trypillia B1-B2 stage sites: 1-2 - Klishchiv (after Заец 1974); 3, 7, 8 - Dnipro region (after V. Khvoika); 5 - Buchach. Fig. 5. Cucuteni C pottery from Soloncheny group sites. Fig. 6. Cucuteni C pottery from Soloncheny 2 site (after Мовша 1998). Fig. 7. Serednii Stig and Trypillia pottery. Fig. 8. Cucuteni C pottery from Trypillia B1-B2 stage sites: 1-7, 13-14 - Dnipro region (after V. Khvoika); 8-12 - Mykolaivka. Fig. 9. Cucuteni C pottery from Trypillia B2 sites: 1, 3 - Nemyrivka; 4 - Nemyriv; 5-7 - Stanislavivka; 8 - BerezovBereg; 9-11, 13-14, 16 - Grebeni; 15 - Studenitsya. Fig. 10. Cucuteni C pottery from Chapaivka. Fig. 11. Cucuteni C pottery from Maidanetske. Fig. 12. Cucuteni C pottery from Trypillia CI stage: 1 - Talne-2; 2-4 - Dnipro region (after V. Khvoika).
Наталья Бурдо
Traces of the ritual practice at a large Trypillian culture settlement near Maydanetske
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VII [XXII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Наталья Бурдо
Anthropomorphic figurines from early Bronze Age burial mounds in the Bug-Dnieper interfluves and the Dnieper area
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XII [XXVII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Михаил Видейко, Джон Чапмен, Наталья Бурдо, Биссерка Гейдарская, Стоилка Игнатова, Светлана Иванова, Виталий Рудь
Research project "Early urbanism in prehistoric Europe: the case of the Trypillian mega-sites" in 2013
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Наталья Бурдо
Interpretation of the cultural layer of the early Trypillian site of Bernashevka I
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XI [XXVI], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
Наталья Бурдо
Spindle whorls of Trypillia-Cucuteni cultural unity
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], 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
