PRE-ROMAN PERIOD

The pre-Roman collection  contain 397 artefacts that chronologically come from V century BC to II century BC. This is a time of significant social changes in the life of the populations that lived on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia and broader central Balkan area, such as Paionians, Macedonians, Brigs, Dassaretes, Lyncestes, Illyrians, Dardanians, etc.

The exhibited artefacts testify of their developed material culture, as well as the economic, trade and cultural relations, especially with the southern Hellenic cities and colonies. The active influence of the Hellenic world on the development of these, for them, "northern territories" can be seen in the numerous examples of different exclusive objects for home and personal usage, brought directly from the centres of the ancient world: Athens, Olynthos, Pella, Amphipolis, Philippi. Such an example is the group of pottery in red-figural painting style, found at the locations at Demir Kapija and Marvinci. Among them there are forms that mark the early Antiquity: pelike, lekythos, kantharos, skyphos, and especially the hydria from Demir Kapija with a representation of Dionysus cult in the style of great Medias.

These and other forms became more and more popular in the local production of pottery. In order to meet the needs of the market, the usage of moulds started for the production of some of them, such as wine glasses.

Jewellery is especially attractive. The beautiful diadems, earrings, necklaces, bracelets, rings, fibulas made in filigree and granulation techniques are without doubt a product of great goldsmiths. In most of the cases, these objects were found in the Antiquity necropolises of the Republic of Macedonia (Isar Marvinci, Ždanec, Demir Kapija, Ohrid and others).

A special group of objects, related to religion and cults are the terracotta figurines with anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations, but also the relief stelae, whose inscriptions and motifs inform a lot about the spiritual culture of these distant ancestors.

The weapons are the next group of artefacts in the exhibition. There are knives, swards, tops of spears and arrows from Isar Marvinci, Ždanec, Demir Kapija and other locations. There is a special place for  a unique helmet of Macedonian type, found at Isar-Marvinci near Valandovo.

The most typical segment of Antiquity art is the sculpture. There is a special group of artefacts, most of them stone and clay portraits, but there are also complete anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. The most typical representative of the pre-Roman sculpture is two bronzed Satyrs, found at Stobi location near Veles.

Goran Sanev, e-mail: sanev@hotmail.com

ROMAN PERIOD

With the defeat at Pydna in year 168 BC, at the battle between Perseus and the Roman army leader Emilius Paul, Macedonia lost its independence. It was initially divided into four merides (areas), with seeming independence and right to mint coins, and finally in year 148 BC it was turned into the first Roman province on the Balkans.

The network of road communications (Egnatia, Vardar and Diagonal road) enabled a fast development of the cities such as Skupi, Stobi, Heraclea, Lychnidos, etc, with a visible growth at the beginning of I century. They looked like urban centres with streets, temples, theatres, baths, porticos, and everything that was Roman concept of city of those times, reaching the culmination of the urban development of II and III century.

Chronologically, the exhibition of this period presents diverse archaeological material of I to IV century. There is clay relief at a large number of terracotta, goddesses, animals, birds, human representations, and the most interesting is the Stobi depot of terracotta.

The burial ritual has its specific features for the time of Roman rule. The burial under hillocks (tumuli) is specific. The most specific ones are the hillock at the village of Krst-Tarinci-Štip. there are superb grave finds of: bronze silver-coated dishes, bronze parts of horse gear, weapons, necklaces of glass paste, bronze lights, gold jewellery, as well as lot of pottery.

In the free area of the exhibition halls there are sculptures presented, portrait statues and busts of deities, such as the statue of god Asclepius of Dionis, goddess Hygia, statues of an emperor, busts of Orestos and Philoxenus, all representing sculpture perfection.

Cone Krstevski
Mihail Stojanoski, e-mail: arheolog@hotmail.com

LATE ANTIQUITY COLLECTION

The late Antiquity collection has 516 artefacts (pottery and glass vessels, clay and bronze lamps, jewellery, decorative relief's), which cover the period from II-IV century. 184 objects are exhibited in the current museum exhibition, typical for the second significant stage of the Roman empire, reflecting the new late Roman culture.

The group of late Roman pottery is within the category of late Roman terra sigillata, dating from IV century. The lamps, especially the bronze ones are within another group, dating from V century with early Christian symbols.

Especially significant are the grave finds of a late antiquity grave from Taraneš near Debar, dating from IV century. The extremely rich grave inventory is made of a diatreta glass vessels of the so-called Cologne type, cross-shaped fibula cast in raw gold with an inscription in niello technique, richly decorated silver platter, silver kana, two glass phiolas.

Mila Surbanovska

THE GREAT MIGRATIONS

The archaeological collection dedicated to the great migrations unites a small group of objects typical of the migrations from the end of late Antiquity and early Middle Ages. Despite the penetrations of the German and Hun peoples in the course of IV and V century, which deeply upset the powerful late Roman empire not managing to leave deeper traces on its integrity on the Balkans, the occurrence of the numerous Slavic, Avarian and Kutrigurian tribes in VI century hinted the new era of the dark Middle Ages, imposing a complete change of the ethnic, social, cultural and political structure of the Balkan Peninsula.

Although the traces of the life of the earliest Slavs on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia are not numerous, we can still clearly recognise them in the manually made jugs as seen in the example from Varnica location at the village of Star Karaorman, near Štip and the stoup of the village of Viničani near Veles, while the circle of magical and ritual animistic beliefs in the fragmented bronze fibula of the same location, as well as the silver application with a human face from Bargala, all dating from VII century. The bronze horseman's amulet with a representation of a human head on the saddle of a galloping horse contains the nomadic beliefs of the ritual circle of Tangara and the shaman rites of approximation of the earthly world, the world of deities and the world of ghosts, of VI-VII/IX century at the village of Zovik, near Bitola.

Most of the objects: torques, massive fibulas and knives, pendants with geometrised form, and women's jewellery: massive earrings, different strings of glass beads and a cross pendant, come from the specific culture of Komani-Kruje, which is only partly at the territory of the Republic of Macedonia at the locations of Ciganski grobišta, at the village of Radolišta near Struga and St. Erasmus near Ohrid. This compact cultural group typical of the whole early Middle Ages, VI-IX century expresses the influence of the still powerful Byzantine empire in leading the Balkans, deployment of Slavic tribes and military troops on strategic places along the roads, controlling more or less the movements, contacts, trade, moves, and brings the new settlers closer to the old ones, introducing them to the common life in the mature Middle Ages and the new feudal society.

Ljubinka Dzidrova MA, e-mail: ljubinkadzidrova@yahoo.com

SLAVIC-BYZANTINE PERIOD

The medieval archaeological collection of X to XIV century is a rich jewellery collection of more than 800 objects of the medieval necropolis at: Crkvište, Manastir, Morodvis, Bistrenci at Demir Kapija, Ciganski grobišta at Radolišta, Grobče at Kočani and Vinica Kale.

The most frequent piece of jewellery are the earrings of thin bronze, copper and less frequently silver wire with pendants, with of without beads, earrings with strawberry and grape shapes. There is another typical type - Kurbinovo earrings, discovered at Ohrid-Prespa region, Dojran and Demir Kapija.

Bronze bracelets, with double bended wire with open ends, shaped like clasps are typical of all locations from the Danube to Corinth, and they are regularly found in all of our necropolis. The metal bracelets are made of broad thin tin, decorated with engraved geometric or plant-like ornaments or punctured dots.

Frequent finds are also the bracelets of glass paste in different colours, ranging from cobalt blue, violet, green, with painted geometric, floral or thin applied or torded threads.

In their shape, processing and decoration, the rings can be divided into several basic groups with more variants. Some of the older rings are those with cone-like upper parts made of filigree wire and granulated beads, and sometimes also from knitted wire, as well as the rings with pyramidal thickenings on the crown and on its sides. Most of the rings are from XII-XIV century. They are with round of ellipse-like upper parts decorated with plant-like, animal-like and geometric ornaments, crosses, monograms and representations of human figures.

Lidija Blazevska

KURŠUMLI AN

One of the most beautiful monuments of culture in Skopje, Kuršumli An, hosts the lapidary of the Museum of Macedonia. The an was built in XVI century as the biggest trade an in Skopje and it included the Kazandzihlar mosque and Gjursiler (Kuri) amam, both of which have been demolished.

At the end of XIX century it was used as a political prison. In 1924, more than 700 stone monuments from the Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo were collected in it. In 1955 the lapidary was made in e horse stable of the an, but this facility was ruined in the 1963 earthquake and it has been closed for the public for years. In 2001, the Museum of Macedonia placed the most significant monuments of its collection on the ground floor of the main building of the an. The exhibition covers more than 130 monuments of different character. Each cell contains monuments from the same area and same period, starting from I century BC to IV century AD. This provides many aspects from the life the Roman province of Macedonia.