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#Exhibit of the Month

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The artifact is a battle axe made from magmatic rock (diabase) of gray-brown color. It was accidentally discovered in 1966 within the territory of Aluniș village, Rîșcani district. Based on its morphological characteristics, the artifact can be attributed to the Catacomb culture (29th-22nd centuries BCE).

The axe features a massive, elongated naviform body with slightly pronounced shoulders, a short and narrow edge that is flat and circular in cross-section. The blade is slightly curved. The hole was drilled in the maximum width of the object. It is circular in shape with a diameter of 2.2 cm. The surface of the artifact is meticulously polished, worked with great care, and shows no signs of damage or chipping.

Dimensions: Length: 20.0 cm; Maximum width: 8.4 cm; Edge diameter: 5.0 cm; Blade width: 7.0 cm; Weight: 2.3 kg.

Stone battle axes are characteristic of the Catacomb culture communities and are most often found as grave goods, deposited in tombs. Their presence in funerary complexes suggests a multifaceted functionality: weapons, social symbols, and ritual objects. Initially used as weapons, the axes became social symbols for their owners, later acquiring votive significance when deposited in tombs to serve the deceased in the afterlife.

The social symbolic function of stone battle axes is indicated by the high-quality rocks used for their manufacture and the exceptionally meticulous craftsmanship. The large dimensions of the axe from Aluniș support this hypothesis and distinguish it from other examples.

The discovery of stone battle axes outside a funerary complex may indicate their votive deposition. It is difficult to imagine that these exceptionally well-crafted pieces, made from high-quality rocks transported over great distances, could have been abandoned or lost accidentally. It is far more likely that they were deposited for magical-religious purposes, a possibility that may also apply to the stone axe discovered at Aluniș.

Virtual Tour


Exhibitions

“Memory of an Undeclared War”

March 1 – 31, 2022

The Dniester war begins to acquire its history, its heroes and its mistakes...

Like any other war, it has many secrets, darkness, madness. At first glance, it may seem that passions flared up as if out of nowhere, imperceptibly, from an innocent law of the functioning of languages.

In reality, however, it is not the linguistic confrontations, not the enmity between Moldavian Romanians and Russian-speaking people, between "nationalist" Chisinau and "internationalist" Tiraspol, "peace-loving", as the Smirnov's propaganda claims, but the struggle for the maintenance of the Bolshevik empire is at the root of the political conflict in the Dniester area, a conflict which in the early spring of 1992 escalated into a real fratricidal war.

Under the invented pretext of "defending the southern borders of Russia" political adventurers in the former metropolis encouraged Transnistrian separatism, armed guard paramilitary formations, sent thousands of mercenary Cossacks, criminals released from prisons, tanks and Alazan rockets against independent Moldova, hoping that with their help they would be able to revive lost empire.

On March 2, 1992, when the President of the Republic of Moldova Mircea Snegur delivered a speech at the plenary session of the UN General Assembly on the occasion of the admission of the Republic of Moldova to the United Nations, detachments of guardsmen and Cossacks armed with machine guns and armored vehicles stormed the Dubăsari district police department. The first fallen appeared. In the south, in Vulcăneşti, another armed group attacked the district police headquarters. The same thing happened simultaneously in Tighina, Grigoriopol and Cocieri... Among the first to die in the line of duty are: Lieutenant Colonel Mihai Moraru, Commissioner of the Hânceşti District Police Department; Iurie Bodiu, Valentin Slobozenco, Tudor Buga, Sergiu Ostaf, Vitalie Păvăluc, Viktor Lavrentsov, a Russian by nationality, a native of Tighina; Boris Dovgani from Pârâta, Serghei Culaţchi, son-in-law of the brave fighter General Anton Gămurari... The lifeless bodies of Sergeant V. Purice and driver N. Galben from Tighina were got out of the waters of the Dniester.

Civilians were attacked, entire villages were under Cossack fire, more than 50,000 civilians in the Dniester zone were forced to leave their homes to escape the scourge of war.

The ordeal that began in Dubăsari left behind hundreds of dead and crippled, orphans, widows, mothers with souls hardened by grief; it caused immeasurable material damage and loss on both banks of the Dniester.

More detailed clippings and chronicles of those dramatic events can be found in various sources: albums, monographs, collections of documents, memoirs, newspaper reports.

A photo-documentary chronicle of this war is also offered by the commemorative exhibition "Memory of an Undeclared War".

 

 

 

It was conceived as a tribute to all participants in the struggle for the defense of the territorial integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova and, first of all, to those who sacrificed their lives on the altar of freedom of the Motherland.

The shocking pictures taken by photojournalists N. Pojoga, M. Vengher, T. Iovu, A. Mardare, S. Voronin, T. Anghel and others reflect the tragic trials that the defenders of Moldova went through in the battles of Dubăsari and Tighina, on the Cocieri and Coşniţa plateaus; they immortalized the heroism and courage of the Moldavian police and volunteers, the hardships and humiliations of the war, destroyed families, ruined houses and villages, women's and children's faces distorted by the pain of the loss of loved ones.

A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to the policemen who died in the fight for the independence and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

The exhibition "Memory of an Undeclared War" was organized on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the outbreak of the armed conflict on the Dniester.


 




Independent Moldova
Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic
Bessarabia and MASSR between the Two World Wars
Bessarabia and Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in the Period between the Two World Wars
Revival of National Movement
Time of Reforms and their Consequences
Abolition of Autonomy. Bessarabia – a New Tsarist Colony
Period of Relative Autonomy of Bessarabia within the Russian Empire
Phanariot Regime
Golden Age of the Romanian Culture
Struggle for Maintaining of Independence of Moldova
Formation of Independent Medieval State of Moldova
Era of the
Great Nomad Migrations
Early Middle Ages
Iron Age and Antiquity
Bronze Age
Aeneolithic Age
Neolithic Age
Palaeolithic Age
  
  

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#Exhibit of the Month

The artifact is a battle axe made from magmatic rock (diabase) of gray-brown color. It was accidentally discovered in 1966 within the territory of Aluniș village, Rîșcani district. Based on its morphological characteristics, the artifact can be attributed to the Catacomb culture (29th-22nd centuries BCE)...

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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.
©2006-2025 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.
©2006-2025 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

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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.
©2006-2025 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