#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.

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.

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Publications

Library „Tyragetia"

Elena Ploșnița

Museum. Museumification of the immovable cultural heritage

Biblioteca „Tyragetia” XXXIV, Chișinău, 2021, 232 p. ISBN 978-9975-80-903-0; 978-9975-166-26-3

A museum is one of the oldest cultural institutions. Over time, the concept of a museum has undergone many changes, the institution being approached from different points of view. Today, the concept of a museum is the subject of extensive debate in the world of museum professionals. New approaches and interpretations related to the mission and vision of a museum are proposed, new models of museum institutions appear. A museum is becoming an indispensable cultural institution for a modern society that preserves and develops the heritage. The development is a universal way of preserving cultural heritage, contributing to tolerance and cohesion in society. The level of development of the heritage also determines the level of development of the society. Effective development of the heritage is achieved through museumification. Museumification leads to the promotion of monuments, their successful use for educational purposes, complex study, interdisciplinary approach and amplification of the process of knowledge and awareness of the need to protect them. The subject of this book is the preservation and optimal development of cultural heritage through museumification, in order to sustain the development of society, the spiritual development of people. The approach to this topic starts from the belief that such research is necessary and can be useful. Museumification is seen as a tool for the protection and development of immovable cultural heritage. This paper presents an important page in the history of national culture, concerning museums and museumification, heritage and heritageization. The topic touched upon here, we believe, relates to museology, heritage science, the areas that are complex, but important for national culture. Museumification is a complex process involving the transformation of cultural and natural heritage into museum objects with the aim of maximizing their preservation, revealing their historical, cultural, scientific, artistic value, and for their promotion. Museumification is considered as an optimal way to protect and relay the socio-cultural experience through the use of memorial houses, archaeological sites, religious monuments, literary and memorial complexes. The process of museumification in the Republic of Moldova is presented in the paper in historical dynamics, in various forms in which it manifested itself - as a museum activity, as a way of preserving and using historical monuments, and as an important factor in the development of the museum system and museography in general. The work includes three chapters with a complex documentary and bibliographic basis.

CONTENTS

Preface (by Liliana Condraticova)

A book about museum and museumification (by Ioan Opriș)

Argument

I. MUSEUM INSTITUTION. PROFESSIONALIZATION OF THE MUSEOGRAPHIC FIELD

I.1. About a museum
I.2. National and international organizations as important tools in forming the professional community
I.3. Professional training of museographers
I.4. Specialized press in the professional communication system
I.5. Professionalization standards: Code of ethics
I.6. Accreditation of museums as a new stage in the professionalization of the museographic field

II. MUSEUMS AND HISTORIC MONUMENTS IN THE INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE SYSTEM

II.1. Institutional structures dedicated to museums
II.2. Museum institution. Legislative aspects
II.3. The contemporary museum between tradition and modernity
II.4. Heritage and heritageization
II.5. Historical monuments in the institutional system
II.6. Legislation regarding historical monuments

III. MUSEUMIFICATION OF IMMOVABLE HERITAGE

III.1. The grammar of the museumification of cultural heritage
III.2. Muzeumification of memorial houses
III.3. Museum and church: problems of museumification
III.4. Archeology and the museumification process
III.5. Museumification of medieval fortresses
III.6. Museumification of historical sites

CONCLUSION

Bibliography

List of abbreviations

Abstract

Резюме

Annexes

Index of proper names

Index of museums

Index of historical monuments