#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.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“History of Military Headgear”

(May 18, 2010 – December 31, 2011)

The exhibition aims to familiarize the public with some valuable items from the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova.

To give a general view of all the museum collections of military exhibits, the most spectacular ones, the exhibition brings to the public attention the obligatory accessories of military clothing – headdresses.

This type of military artefacts is exhibited separately for the first time.

The exhibition includes a selection of about 100 the most representative museum items of the kind. The presentation is made in evolutional order, from the 4th century B.C. to the present, in terms of the type of headgear.

The museum collection of headgear was constituted in the second half of the 20th century through donations and fortuitous discoveries. It includes more than 300 items from the oldest times to the present illustrating the evolution of this element of military costume in Europe. Some of the headdresses from the collection belonged to the military persons of figure.

The exhibition of headgear lets us to retrace the main changes in uniforms occurred as a result of the development and improvement of the military institution.

The exhibited items originate from the Russian Empire, Prussia, Austria-Hungary, France, Italy, Romania, the Ottoman Empire, Germany, USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Republic of Moldova.

These military artefacts are of various types - helmets, shakoes, garrison caps, fezes, hats, berets, kepis, caps, of daily, field or ceremonial wearing.

The oldest and most valuable items shown in the exhibition are two helmets, one of them of the Phrygian type, dated from the second half of the 4th century B.C. and found in 1958 in a hoard from Olanesti (the Stefan Voda District), and the other one of the 14th century, found at the Orheiul Vechi.

The latest headgear belongs to the National Army of the Republic of Moldova: hat, kepi, and cap of the 1992 model.

The exhibition is complemented with headgear accessories: plume, pompon, egret, cockades, and other items: epaulettes, belts, pouch, map case, whip, shabrack, protective mask and glasses, holster, weapons, etc. On mannequins there are presented several types of uniforms: of an uhlans’ trumpet-player (1855), of a hussar (1855), of the “Rosiori” lieutenant-colonel (1934), and of a soldier of the National Army Honour Guard (1992). On the walls there are photographs presenting images of the military from different countries of Europe in their uniforms. All these contribute to the reconstruction of the European military history.

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#Exhibit of the Month

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

“History of Military Headgear”

(May 18, 2010 – December 31, 2011)

#Exhibit of the Month