#Exhibit of the Month

The 21 beads form part of a bronze hoard found in 2019 within a forested area close to the town of Nisporeni. Alongside the beads, the hoard included numerous bronze ornaments (2 Röschitz-Sanislău-type fibulae, 7 necklaces, 12 rings, 22 tubes, 23 bracelets, and approximately 80 appliqués), one coral bead and a pendant made from a wild animal's tooth. At present, the amber beads are preserved in the collections of the Muzeul Național de Istorie a Moldovei, while the remainder of the hoard is in the possession of a private collector.
The hoard was discovered accidentally in a pit about 50 cm deep. The objects in this hoard are of Western origin, with known parallels in archaeological complexes from Poland, Hungary, Serbia, and Slovakia, and, to a lesser extent, in Romania. The presence of this bronze hoard on the territory of the Republic of Moldova illustrates the cultural dynamics of the region during the Early Iron Age and a fundamental shift in the vector of cultural influences from east to west.

The amber bead strand comprises 16 whole beads and five fragmentary ones. They have an elongated biconical shape and vary in size. The beads are brown-reddish in color; their lengths range from 1.1 to 3.1 cm, widths from 0.6 to 1.4 cm, thicknesses from 0.6 to 1.1 cm, and the perforation diameter ranges between 0.2 and 0.3 cm.
Amber beads appear in several bronze hoards dated to the Late Bronze Age in the eastern half of Slovakia and in Transdanubian Hungary. Parallels are also known from the Cioclovina Cave in Romania. With the onset of the Iron Age, amber items disappear from the Carpathian Basin for approximately 300 years, reappearing alongside the arrival of Scythian elements.
The bronze hoard discovered at Nisporeni is dated to the HaA2-HaB1-2 interval (1050/1000 - 800/750 B.C.).

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

Exhibition of Christmas Trees

November 20th – 10th December 10th, 2015

For three weeks the National Museum of History of Moldova hosted the 5th edition of the Exhibition of Christmas Trees. The exhibition is part of the contest „Ball of Christmas Trees" project - a unique contest of creativity and design targeting young talented students from Republic of Moldova, initiated and supported by Nata Albot and Viorica Nagacevschi, founders of NGO „KLumea".

This year, unlike previous editions, not only art students got engaged in the competition but also consecrated artists. The exhibition organized by „Klumea" team gathered 57 handcrafted art works made using different techniques by students from the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts, the Technical University of Moldova and experienced artists. They competed in originality and craftsmanship, making their trees of different materials, such as glass, wood, metal, textiles, paper, quail eggs and feathers, decorated with spoons, paintings, musical notes, boots, paint tubes, pillows, thread balls and all kind of toys.

In the exhibition were presented also five threes created by Hospice Angelus, Boarding Girls School from Hâncești, Center for children with autism "Puzzle Kids", National Association "Defeat cystic fibrosis" and Foundation "Good Heart". These trees did not participate in the context.

5467 exhibition visitors had the opportunity to vote for the dearest tree based on the entrance ticket and to participate in a silent auction of exhibited artworks. The auction consisted in writing the amount of money to be donated on a list attached to the tree.

At the exhibition closing, a jury of five members, which included organizers, sponsors and journalists, announced the winners of the three prizes. The most beautiful trees in the competition were announced in the evening of December 11th in an auction event.

The 1st Prize was won by Oxana Turtureanu, student at AMTFA for the tree „Dor de dor" (7000 lei, gifts and a trip to Poland offered by the Cultural Institute „Adam Mickiewicz" of Warsaw). The 2nd Prize was won by Andrei Brânza, student at TUM with the tree „Ciclice" (Cyclic) and Valentin Bostan, student at AMTFA, with the tree „Lacrima unui popor" (Teardrop of nation) (5000 lei and gifts). The 3rd Prize was won by Alexandru Terenti, student at TUM for the tree „West wood" (2000 lei and gifts). The prize "Public Sympathy" went to Ecaterina Căpățină and Vadim Antoni for the tree „Nemurire" (Immortality) with most votes form exhibition visitors (3000 lei and gifts).

Half of the money raised in the auction returned to the tree creators and the other half went to project „Arterapia" initiated by KLumea for decoration of children hospitals' interiors from Chișinău.