„Loveşte, înainte ca flacăra să pâlpâie!” Vechi tehnologii de aprindere a focului: amnarul, cremenea și iasca
“Strike It before It Flickers!” Ancient Technologies to Light the Fire: the Fire Striker, the Flint and the Tinder

Summary/Abstract: Within the exhibition “Lighting. Objects and lighting systems, from Prehistory to the Modern Era”, open between December 16, 2021 and May 1, 2022 at the History Museum of Moldavia, the theme of fire strikers was presented to the public in the form of a special section. The museographic concept was also accompanied by a catalogue, in whose pages we brought together the information presented in the exhibition by means of complementary panels, including those dedicated to the present subject. The research of this topic was continued by practical presentations, consisting in gathering, cutting and treating the tinder, followed by igniting plant fibres with the help of a replica fire striker and the flint (silex), an action successfully accomplished. While attempting to understand the process of obtaining fire with the means described above, the research also included various stages in terms of timeframes, starting from the prehistoric archaeology, continuing with late Antiquity and the Byzantine period, followed by the Middle Ages and reaching to the modern era. The archaeological, numismatic, iconographical sources were completed by historiography-related information which intermingled with those of an ethnographic and linguistic nature, mainly coming from the 19th-20th centuries. The study revealed the importance of the three elements (fire striker, flint and tinder) in obtaining fire. At the same time, a whole symbolism was created around them, so it is not by chance that the expressions they were found in have meaningful messages.

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