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 museum institution in the process of globalization
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. III [XVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
The beginning of the millennium marked the dissolution of communication borders generated by the transition from a tightly governed political system to the democratization process, from planned economy to the market one, from the rapid development of technologies to the globalization phenomenon. The postindustrial economy had stimulated the mobilization of the intellectual capital and its use in production and service spheres.
It is in the period of impetuous transformations that appears the nostalgia of stability, originality and individuality. The identity of the person, of the community of origin, ethnicity and nationality had always been one of the essential points of each cultural dialog at local, national or universal scale.
In the context of changing social-political and cultural processes, the issue of keeping and affirming identity becomes an essential one; a fortiori it represents the only efficient way of combating the negative and obscured effects of globalization.
The globalization process had imposed the contemporary society with a cultural globalization by redefining the purpose of the museum institution which’s activity is determined by new factors: - the market holds the arbiter role, appreciating and determining the essence of values - the entertainment industry holds a considerable niche in the cultural sphere - reduction of the state role and the emergence of untraditional political formations - disappearance of intellectual borders - appearance and development of multicultural communities - as a result of developing new technologies appear new visions about notions of place, time, space etc.
Another aspect of the cultural globalization is the decentralization of big museums and the rapid museification of society. We are today the witnesses of a big museum revolution; we will be able to appreciate in time whether it is a positive or a negative factor. One of the immediate changes is building new systems of museums, or of a new system of museums. In other words, building a territorial network not only diversified spatially and territorially, but also on profiles, levels and functions in which the different unities complete and correlate among themselves, keeping the same educational and heritage preservation objectives.
Lucia Marinescu-Tonu
The interpretive dimension of museum exhibitions
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XV [XXX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Lucia Marinescu
In memoriam Mihai Onilă
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Lucia Marinescu-Tonu
Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences in Rio de Janeiro - between science and public
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. VIII [XXIII], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Lucia Marinescu-Tonu
Techniques for interpreting cultural heritage in the provinces of Trento and Ferrara
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIV [XXIX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
Lucia Marinescu-Tonu
Museum institution in the „globalization trap”
Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. IV [XIX], nr. 2, Istorie. Muzeologie
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.