#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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Research Research Projects

"Role of museum heritage in the development of contemporary society" (2015-2018)

Since 2015 the museum's researchers will implement the institutional project Role of museum heritage in the development of contemporary society part of strategic direction National heritage and development of society.
Project director is dr.hab. Elena Ploșnița

Cultural heritage, important component of culture, is resultant of social-cultural and political-economic developments. Cultural heritage, including museum heritage, is of particular importance for the human community to which it is associated and for society as a whole.

In an open society, democratization of culture and of museum institutions which, permanently broaden their cultural offer, presumes a responsibility for research and scientific or public valorification of museum's assets. In recent years, public institutions, national and international forums have argued various concepts such as valorification of museum heritage, museum brand, cultural tourism, museum marketing and management. This orientation of public institutions, mass-media and society in general is owed to the importance of social-cultural factors as levers and main components of sustainable social-economic development. This change, which envisions a reassessment of economic importance besides the cultural one of national cultural heritage, including museum heritage, requires shifting the focus to areas not addressed so far or insufficiently taken into account, such as the role of museum institutions in the development of a sustainable society.

The project proposes several major research directions:

- systematization of archaeological collections, medieval period;
- documentation, research and scientific and public valorifiation of several categories of museum assets: collection of gold and silver objects from ancient times to the end of twentieth century, collection of advertising posters, collection of watches, coin collection from the archaeological site Costești, thirteenth-fourteenth century;
- identification of museum's educational role throughout its existence and impact for society;
- improvement of the ways of communicating the scientific message to contemporary Moldovan society;
- promotion of museum heritage in the Moldovan society and abroad through a broad program of scientific valorifiation, exhibitions and publishing.

The project will contribute to scientific systematization of museum collections, to enhancing the dialogue between museum and society (public), to the development of an open society aware of the value and necessity of promoting the museum heritage at home and abroad.

The role of museum heritage in social development presumes primarily valorification. Museum cultural heritage valorification means, on one hand, good conservation and preservation and, on the other hand, proper systematization so to fulfill its cultural, social and educational mission. The valorification of heritage has both a scientific and cultural aspect, related to the analysis and dissemination of information about the significance of cultural heritage, and an economical one. A good activity leads not only to preservation but to a well informed society. Today, the performance of cultural institutions, their accomplished missions and objectives are increasingly measured by economic criteria: profitability, efficiency, degree of public satisfaction, number and impact of programs and products developed etc. What differs is the assessment perspective: the first is social-cultural perspective; however the economical one cannot be ignored.

Three basic principles:

- sustainable cultural development (heritage enrichment and transmission to future generations)
- serving a wide audience
- adaptation to external and internal environment should be extremely dynamic.

These are three principles underlying the correlation of results to be obtained in this project with the results obtained by museums around the world in their relation with the contemporary society.

Scientific research results will be summarized in articles, monographs, catalogues of heritage collections, thematic exhibitions.

The following results are expected for the first year (2015) of project:

- will be identified the heritage value of various categories of museum assets with the aim to introduce them into the scientific and public circuit, national and international for the benefit of society,
- will be systematized the theory and practice of Moldovan museology under the aspect of museum role and place for the educational system of Moldova,
- will be developed and published a catalogue with pieces from the collection of precious metals, a monograph focused on Cucuteni-Tripyllian culture, a monograph arguing museum-public and museum-society relationships from the end of nineteenth century till our days,
- will continue the process of digitization of museum collections,
- will be organized exhibitions home and abroad.

#Exhibit of the Month

Ceramic Vessel Set from Bălceana-Hâncești (5th–7th Centuries)

#Exhibit of the Month