#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).

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

The compartment of World War II and Stalinist repression

(Permanent Exhibition „History and Civilization”)

The department presents documentary evidences about World War II and political repression during the Stalinist dictatorship.

Numerous photos, documents, military clothing items, letters from the front, personal belongings of soldiers recreate the ordeal of war, which caused millions of deaths and immeasurable economic losses.

The compartment of World War II and Stalinist repression

Among the relics presented in the showcases you can see a photograph of the commander of the 12th gendarme regiment G. Niculescu, who was the first Romanian colonel fallen in the battles of Tiganca on July 9, 1941; letters from the front written by E. Filatov, soldier in the Romanian army, to his wife; military ID that belonged to V. Sava, a native of the village of Bardar, Lapusna District; photograph and flying helmet of S. Harhalup who’s aircraft was shot down on 30 June 1941 during a fight over his native village of Valea Adanca, Camenca District; sailor’s shirt of I. Caimacan and shoulder straps of Colonel L. Grecu, who participated in the war in the ranks of Soviet troops and navy.

A number of exhibits remind of the horrible concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau, where more than 4 million people, representatives of 27 nationalities, were killed Nearby you can see the clothes of a prisoner of the Soviet forced labor camps and a certificate on the name of Vasile Cojocaru, a former political prisoner, as well as a certificate stating that Peter Cojocaru was shot in 1942 at the camp in Mariinsk, Kemerovo Region.

Such a fate befell tens of thousands of Bessarabians who were in the Soviet Gulag. During the 11 years, from 1940 to 1951, the MSSR there were carried out three large-scale deportations and dozens of arrests and deportations at the local level. In June 1941 there were deported 3470 families of "anti-Soviet elements" (22 848 persons). On the night of 5 to 6 July 1949, 11 293 families (over 35 thousand people) of hardworking peasants were forcibly sent to the suffering and death in Siberia and other remote areas of the Soviet empire. In 1951, as a result of the operation "North", 723 families of Jehovah‘s Witnesses (over 2,600 people) have been forcibly relocated.

The exhibition includes photographs, letters from the camps, lists of confiscated property, personal belongings of the deported, and other documentary evidence about the fate of people who have experienced the deportation ordeal, such as poet Nicolae Turcan, scientist Alexei Barladeanu, teacher Catherine Dementieva, the Buiuc family from Chiperceni (Orhei District), the Baciu family from Mereni (Anenii Noi District), the Berezovschi family from Chisinau, Xenia Botnaru from Straseni, Alexandra and Gregory Scafaru from Ciuciuleni (Nisporeni District), and many others.