#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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Exhibitions

“War on the Dniester”

March 2 - 21, 2021

March 2, 2021 marks the 29th anniversary of the outbreak of armed conflict in the eastern districts of the Republic of Moldova, a conflict provoked by political adventurers and pro-imperialist revenge forces of the former Soviet empire.

Under the invented pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders", they encouraged Transnistrian separatism, armed paramilitary guards, and sent thousands of mercenary Cossacks, criminals released from prisons, tanks, and Alazan missiles, hoping that with their help they will be able to revive the lost empire.

On March 2, 1992, when the President of the Republic of Moldova Mircea Snegur delivered, in the plenary session of the UN General Assembly, the speech of thanks on the occasion of the reception of the Republic of Moldova in the United Nations, groups of guards and Cossacks armed with submachine guns and armored vehicles stormed the headquarters of the Dubăsari district police station. There were the first fallen. To the south, in Vulcăneşti, another armed group attacks the district police headquarters. The same happens, simultaneously, in Tighina, Grigoriopol and Cocieri... Among the first to fall on duty then are: lieutenant-colonel Mihai Moraru, commissioner of the Hânceşti district police station; Iurie Bodiu, Valentin Slobozenco, Tudor Buga, Sergiu Ostaf, Vitalie Păvăluc, Victor Lavrentsov, Russian of nationality, a native of Tighina; Boris Dovgani from Pârâta, Serghei Culaţchi, the son-in-law of the brave fighter General Anton Gămurari... The lifeless bodies of Sergeant V. Purice and driver N. Galben from Tighina were taken from the waters of the Dniester.

Thus, the political conflict in the Dniester area degenerated into a real fratricidal war. Peaceful people were being attacked, entire villages were being held under Cossack fire, and more than 50,000 peaceful inhabitants of the Dniester area were forced to leave their homes, saving themselves from the scourge of war.

The ordeal begun 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 sketches and chronicles of those dramatic events can be found in various sources: albums, monographs, collections of documents, memoirs, newspaper reports.

The commemorative exhibition "War on the Dniester" is also an attempt to reconstruct the reality of the Dniester tragedy.

It was conceived as a tribute to all participants in the struggles for the defense of the 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 Fatherland.

The exhibition brings together shocking images made in the conflict area by photojournalists T. Iovu, N. Pojoga, M. Vengher, A. Mardare, S. Voronin, T. Anghel, and others. The images reconstruct the ordeal that Moldavian defenders went through in the battles of Dubăsari and Tighina, on the plateaus of Cocieri and Coşniţa, immortalized the heroism and manhood of Moldavian police and volunteers, the hardships and humiliations of war, destroyed families, houses and villages, faces of women and children contorted by the pain of losing loved ones.

A special section of the exhibition is dedicated to the fallen fighters in defense of the independence and integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

The exhibition "War on the Dniester" was organized on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the outbreak of the armed conflict on the Dniester and is dedicated to all defenders of the integrity and independence of the Republic of Moldova.

#Exhibit of the Month

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

“War on the Dniester”

March 2 - 21, 2021

#Exhibit of the Month