#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.

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Events Archive

Symposium "The Union of 1918 in museum collections"

April 12, 2018

On April 12, 2018, at the National Museum of History of Moldova was held the Symposium "The Union from 1918 in museum collections". The event was attended by historians and museographers from various Romanian and Moldovan institutions, representatives of the Museum of History of Romania (Bucharest), the Museum of the Union (Alba Iulia), the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History (Chişinău), the National Museum of Literature "M. Kogâlniceanu" (Chişinău), the Museum of Cahul Region, the Institute of History (Chişinău) and the State Archival Service of the Republic of Moldova.

The works of the Symposium began with a presentation by Ion Negrei, researcher at the Institute of History of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova, which reviewed the chronology of the events from Bessarabia in 1917-1918, especially the works of the historical meeting of Sfatul Ţării (the Parliament) on March 27th, 1918. All 13 papers presented were focused on the thematic of the symposium evoking moments, places, personalities that marked the history of the event.

The symposium was an attempt to approach with reverence the content of the museum heritage focusing on the theme of the Union, tangled testimonies coming from various categories of pieces: documents, photographs, postcards, medals, original personal objects, presented in a form of recovery and re-evaluation. Testimonies about Bessarabian personalities in the collections of the National Museum of History of Romania, Documents of the Union from the collection of the Museum of the Union from Alba Iulia, From the KGB archive - to the museum heritage. The history of a collection, The Mărăşeşti Book of poet Alexei Mateevici, The evocation of the Union for half a century, Photographic, documentary and numismatic testimonies with memorial value from the collection of the NMHM - are just a few of the subjects that have marked the contribution of the museographers to the process of collective memory formation in connection with the events of March 27, 1918 - December 1, 1918, these testimonies being a contribution from the perspective of writing history.

The event was part of the series of events, dedicated to the Centenary of the Great Union, organized by the National Museum of History of Moldova.