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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.

Virtual Tour


Publications Journal „Tyragetia"


Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică
ISSN 1857-0240
E-ISSN 2537-6330

Tyragetia, serie nouă, vol. XIII [XXVIII], nr. 1, Arheologie. Istorie Antică

Chișinău, 2019

I. Researches


Михаил Видейко
The channel kilns in Trypillia Culture and development of pottery

Наталья Бурдо
Spindle whorls of Trypillia-Cucuteni cultural unity

Florin Gogâltan
About the Absolute Chronology of the Late Bronze in the Eastern Carpathian Basin

II.    Papers and surveys


Оксана Олих, Алексей Данильченко, Елена Ревина
Mar’eva Gora in the northeastern Sea of Azov region – a Unique Archaeological Site

Александр Колесник, Никита Манько
On the typology of hammerstones from Neo-Eneolithic workshops of Donbass

Eugen Mistreanu
Settlements of Gumelniţa culture in the Prut-Dniester area (catalog)

Игорь Сапожников, Майя Кашуба
«Corpus of antiques and archaeological findings in Bessarabia» by N. Mogilyansky and Ya. Ebergardt

Виктор Мерц
Copper vessel from from Krivinka 1 settlement

Салтанат Амирова, Мильяна Радивоевич
Copper vessel from from Krivinka 1 settlement. Compositional and metallographic analysis

Елена Избицер
Wagon burials in pits of the Middle Bronze Age in the Don River basin

Виктор Гребенников
Settlements of the epoch late bronze of the left-bank Tiligul Lyman and the basin of r. Berezan (materials for the archaeological map of the Northern Black Sea Coast)

Тудор Сорочянy, Кэтэлин Добринеску, Сорин Айлинкэй, Виталие Бодоликэ, Тибериу Сава
Die Coslogeni-Fundgrube 121 von Cernavodă-„Autobahn 2, km. 152“ (Kr. Constanţa, Rumänien): Treffpunkt hervorragender osteuropäischer Bronzen und Keramik an der westlichen Schwarzmeerküste

Mariana Sîrbu, Sergiu Popovici, Vlad Vornic
The hoard of bronze artifacts discovered near village Haragîş (Cantemir district)

Margareta Simina Stanc, Daniel Ioan Malaxa, Sorin-Cristian Ailincăi
The analysis of faunal remains in Early Iron Age settlement at Enisala-Palanca (Sarichioi Commune, Tulcea County, South-Eastern Romania)

Ion Niculiţă, Aurel Zanoci, Mihail Băţ, Victor Dulgher
Archaeological investigations at the Saharna Mare / „Dealul Mănăstirii” site, Rezina district (2017-2019)

Tatiana Nagacevschi, Angela Simalcsik, Vitalie Sochircă, Margareta Simina Stanc
Interdisciplinary research at Saharna Mare / „Dealul Mănăstirii” site

Natalia Mateevici
Emblems representing deities on Sinope amphora stamps (based on the Tyras collection)

Иван Снытко, Андрей Бондаренко
Coin segments used as weights in the Olbia Polis in the 4th-3rd centuries BC

Aurel Mototolea, Tiberiu Potârniche, Simina Margareta Stanc
Recent Archaeological Investigations on the Tomitan Acropolis (2017-2018). Preliminary Study

Vasile Iarmulschi
On the chronology of the La Tène cemetery at Cammer (Lkr. Potsdam-Mittelmark)

Boris A. Raev
Roman bronzes and door knockers from the Black Sea cities of Central Anatolia. An ethnographic etude

Иван Власенко
Early medieval bone handles of knives with annular notches as one of the possible signs of ethnic attribution of the Tivertsi

Ion Tentiuc, Valeriu Bubulici
The hoard of early medieval tools and weapons found at Sadova-Călăraşi, the Republic of Moldova

Вячеслав Крыжановский
Traces of bronze casting production on the western outskirts of ancient Kyiv

Octavian Munteanu, Angela Simalcsik
Une tombe médiévale avec d’anneaux à boucles decouverte à Butuceni, la région d’Orhei (notes préliminaires)

Mariana Gugeanu, Gheorghe Postică
The research, preservation and restoration of textiles discovered during the archaeological excavations undertaken at the Căpriana Monastery

Ana Boldureanu
Chronicle of coin finds (XII-XIII)

III. Paper and book review


Ana Boldureanu
Александр Владимирович Пачкалов, Золотая Орда по данным нумизматических источников. Монография, Москвa: Кнорус, 2018, 180 pp., ISBN 978-5-4365-2528-0

IV. Scientific events


Zvezdana Dode, Dale Carolyn Gluckman
The 4th Annual Symposium of the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles

V. Homage


Tudor Soroceanu
Wojciech Blajer. Oder: Die Kraft der Ruhe

Florin Gogâltan
Tudor Soroceanu şi cercetarea epocii bronzului

Sergiu Matveev
Profesorul Ion Niculiţă la 80 de ani

 



 

 

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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