#Exhibit of the Month

The metal vessel was likely used as a funerary urn. It was found together with another vessel, shaped like a shell and used as a lid for the urn, in a landslide along the road within the Yahorlyk Nature Reserve, Dubăsari District. The village of Yahorlyk is located at the mouth of the stream of the same name, a left tributary of the Dniester River.
The vessel belongs to the Hemmoo type (or Eggers 63) and is a rare find in the late ancient sites of the 2nd-3rd centuries AD. Researchers consider this type of vessel to be of Italic, Gallo-Italic, or Mediterranean origin, frequently used as a funerary urn or burial inventory by the Bastarnae. Upon discovery, the vessel was reportedly filled with "earth and burnt bones."

The vessel was found together with a brass sheet vessel that had undulated or fluted walls. It has a height of 14.9 cm (without the base ring). The diameter of the vessel's body is 19.5 cm, and the total height is 16.2 cm. The rim of the vessel flares outward with a diameter of 20.5 cm. The vessel is made from thin brass sheet, only 0.1 cm thick. The upper part of the vessel is modestly ornamented. The middle of the rim, on the exterior, has a shallow horizontal line incised. The transition from the rim to the body is marked by a wide groove, 0.3 cm in width. From this groove, the rim thickens to 0.25 cm. On the upper part of the rim, on two symmetrically placed sides, semicircular handles with stepped bases were cut out. The handles are 2.2 cm in height and 5.1 cm in width. Including the "steps" at the base, the handles are 6.1 cm wide. In the middle of each handle, a circular elongated hole was made for the attachment of a handle, measuring 1.2 x 1.5 cm.

The ornamentation on the upper part of the vessel's body consists of two bands, each formed by two parallel incised lines, spaced 0.2 to 0.4 cm apart. The interval between the two bands is 0.9 cm. The vessel's handle is semicircular, mobile, fairly thick, rectangular in cross-section (0.8 x 0.9 cm), and made from a rounded brass bar. The ends of the handle are thinned to 0.6 cm and widened to 0.9 cm over a length of 2.6 cm, resembling bird heads. On the median part of the bar, incised marks resembling Roman numerals IX and XI are present. The bottom of the vessel was made from a separate brass sheet, worked by pressing on a lathe. Evidence of this process is the indentation from the lathe's fixing rod, preserved in the central part of the vessel's bottom. Surrounding this indentation is an ornament consisting of two bands of concentric lines, with diameters of 1.8 cm and 5.9 cm, respectively. The lower part of the vessel is raised and rests on a ringed base, formed by shaping the vessel's walls and bending the piece that formed the actual bottom. This base has a diameter of 8.7 cm.

For the North-West Pontic and East-Carpathian regions, several scattered sites or points where fragments of metal vessels were discovered, used as funerary inventory or urns, should be mentioned. These include discoveries from the funerary complexes of flat necropolises dated to the first centuries AD, at Hansca-Lutăria II and Dănceni-Ialoveni. Here, excavations identified noble graves with fragments of bronze vessels with metal handles, similar to the vessel from Yahorlyk.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

"War Up Close"

August 21 – November 20, 2024

The National Museum of History of Moldova is pleased to announce the opening of the virtual reality exhibition "War Up Close" on August 21, 2024, at 4:00 PM. This exhibition is organized in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's Moldova Office.

"War Up Close" is a virtual reality exhibition aimed at showcasing the scale of the disaster caused by Russia's unjustified war on Ukraine. Through 360-degree panoramic photographs, drone images, and 3D modeling, the exhibition makes the nature of this war tangible, highlighting the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the suffering of millions of Ukrainians.

The exhibition immerses visitors in pre- and post-war images, offering a raw, unfiltered view of the human cost of Russia's aggression in Ukraine. It also provides visitors with the opportunity to "walk through" and virtually explore areas, viewing 360-degree images from fixed locations via viewing devices.

The project was initiated by experts from Ukraine's Discover.ua and FreegenGroup, who, despite the dangers, mapped the crimes against Ukraine for future generations to preserve the memory of this tragedy using experienced photojournalists and state-of-the-art technology.

Mykola Omelchenko, Ukraine's first Google Trusted Photographer, began photographing for "War Up Close" during a period when the Russian government denied responsibility for military strikes on non-military targets, such as residential areas and cultural centers, claiming instead that the Ukrainian government was falsifying or altering images of the destruction. Omelchenko wanted people to explore the images themselves, so they are presented without captions or commentary. "The essential goal of the project is to show the reality of war in a way that it can no longer be denied," stated Omelchenko.

The "War Up Close" project team works closely with Ukraine's Emergency Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The panoramic views and drone images assist rescue teams in removing debris and assessing the true impact of the destruction. The team also specializes in 3D modeling of historical monuments and buildings.

The exhibition also includes a selection of war-time artifacts and links to 360-degree images that can be viewed without virtual reality equipment.

Since its launch in 2022, "War Up Close" has been presented in locations worldwide, including Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Australia, and North America, attracting a significant number of visitors. For more information, visit https://war.city.

The exhibition "War Up Close" will be open from August 21 to November 20, 2024, in Hall No. 2 of the National Museum of History of Moldova, Chișinău, 31 August 1989 Street, 121A.

#Exhibit of the Month

The Metal Vessel from Yahorlyk on the Middle Dniester

"War Up Close"

August 21 – November 20, 2024

#Exhibit of the Month