Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre
Encyclopedia
Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre (MNH), (Museum of Nature and Man in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

), is a museum
Museum
A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...

, Tenerife
Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

, (Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

). It contains many significant archaeological finds and is considered the best repository of objects from the Prehispanic Canary Islands. The museum also houses significant paleontological
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

, botanical
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

, entomological
Entomology
Entomology is the scientific study of insects, a branch of arthropodology...

 and marine and terrestrial vertebrate collections, in an excellent state of preservation, and is considered the best Natural Library of the Canary Islands.

The museum also integrates the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, the Bioantropología's Canary Institute and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Tenerife. The museum is located in the downtown area of Santa Cruz, in the former Civil Hospital, a building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

 that constitutes an example of the neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...

 of Canary Islands. The archaeological section was founded in 1958.

The museum holds the largest collection on the culture of the Guanche
Guanche
Guanche may refer to:*Guanches, an aboriginal people of the Canary Islands*Guanche language, extinct language, used to be spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century...

 and also has one of the most modern methods of presentation of mummies, (announced in 2006 by the Cabildo de Tenerife
Cabildo de Tenerife
Cabildo de Tenerife is the governing body of the island of Tenerife , Spain. It was established on 16 March 1913 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in a session held by the City Council, it was at that time, the first corporation...

 through a communique). It is also an internationally renowned museum and has participated in international meetings on archeology, but its fame is mainly due to its formidable collection of Guanche mummies
Guanche mummies
The Guanches, the ancient inhabitants of the Canary Islands mummified their dead.This practice was intended to preserve the body of the deceased through embalming techniques similar to those performed in other ancient civilizations. Its purpose, linked to their religious beliefs, was to protect...

. In 1992 the Museum of Nature and Man participated in an international research project on mummies (called PROJECT CRONOS), with a global exhibition of mummies. For this reason, the Museum of Nature and Man is a world reference in regard to preservation of mummies.
Foreign television companies such as the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 JWM
JWM
JWM is a lightweight stacking window manager for the X Window System written by Joe Wingbermuehle. JWM is written in C and uses only Xlib at a minimum...

 Productions (Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...

) and NHK
NHK
NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

 (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) have filmed documentaries on mummies in the museum. It is also regarded as the most important museum of Macaronesia
Macaronesia
Macaronesia is a modern collective name for several groups of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean near Europe and North Africa belonging to three countries: Portugal, Spain, and Cape Verde...

.

History

Founded in 1958 with funds from the Section of Archeology and Anthropology Museum of the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...

, its first director was Luis Diego Cuscoy, who brought together a unique collection of archaeological material and human remains from the prehistory
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

 of Tenerife. During the sixties, funds were raised to add to the collections, including ethnographic and archeological materials from Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

 and Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian
The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

 America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. At present the museum exhibits prehistoric archaeological remains both from Tenerife and the rest of the Canary Islands
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

 as well as other cultures.

Permanent exhibitions

On permanent exhibition is a gallery dedicated to the archaeology and the funeral rituals of the aboriginal world. Displayed are the museums collection of skeletal and mummified remaims of the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, along with objects buried in the tombs of the guanche
Guanche
Guanche may refer to:*Guanches, an aboriginal people of the Canary Islands*Guanche language, extinct language, used to be spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century...

 kings (Menceyes). One of the best preserved mummies is that of the Mummy of San Andrés
Mummy of San Andrés
The Mummy of San Andrés is a human mummy belonging to the Guanche culture .One of the best preserved Guanche mummies, it is a male of about 25 to 30 years partially covered with goatskin with 6 strips that surround it. The mummy was found in a cave in a ravine outside the village of San Andrés...

.

The museum also exhibits a fine collection of ceramics and fossils of prehistoric animals both of Canaries and of the rest of the world, such as the giant lizard of Tenerife (Gallotia goliath
Gallotia goliath
Gallotia goliath is an extinct giant lizard species from the island of Tenerife of the Canary Islands, Spain. This reptile lived before the arrival of humans. It was described by the German herpetologist Robert Mertens. It is believed that it grew to at least three feet long...

), the Tenerife Giant Rat (Canariomys bravoi) and a megalodon
Megalodon
The megalodon and ὀδούς ) is an extinct species of shark that lived roughly from 28 to 1.5 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era .The taxonomic assignment of C...

 shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....

 tooth.

Featured Pieces

Its formidable collection of mummies, ornaments, models of Aboriginal settlements and pottery. Ranging from the beginnings of the Guanche culture to the Conquest of the Canary Islands
Conquest of the Canary Islands
The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Kingdom of Castille took place between 1402 and 1496. It can be divided into two periods, the Conquista señorial, carried out by Castilian nobility in exchange for a covenant of allegiance with the crown, and the Conquista realenga, carried out by the...

. Some of its key parts are:
  • Guanche
    Guanche
    Guanche may refer to:*Guanches, an aboriginal people of the Canary Islands*Guanche language, extinct language, used to be spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century...

     mummies. Among which the famous Mummy of San Andrés
    Mummy of San Andrés
    The Mummy of San Andrés is a human mummy belonging to the Guanche culture .One of the best preserved Guanche mummies, it is a male of about 25 to 30 years partially covered with goatskin with 6 strips that surround it. The mummy was found in a cave in a ravine outside the village of San Andrés...

    .

  • Zanata Stone
    Zanata Stone
    The Zanata Stone is a small rock with inscriptions presumably of Guanche origin. The stone was found in 1992 near a mountain known as Montaña de las Flores , in the municipality of El Tanque...

     (rock with Berber-Punic inscriptions).

  • Ceramic and trousseau Guanche.

  • Mediterranean and Aegean
    Aegean Sea
    The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

     amphoras found on the shores canarias.

  • Thirteen Egyptian
    Ancient Egypt
    Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...

     ceramics 5700 years ago, one of which is the oldest piece of this civilization in a Spanish center.

Participation in projects

The Archaeological Museum of Tenerife took part in the Great Exhibition on mummies in 2010 which was held in Granada
Granada
Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

 (Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

). The exhibition feature pieces from various civilizations and geographical environments including the 8000 year old American "Chinchorro". There was also be a representation of the sarcophagi of Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

, the arid zones of the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

, the marshes of Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

, the "men of the ice" (like the mummy Ötzi), which appear from time to time in the cemeteries of Spanish and Guanche
Guanche
Guanche may refer to:*Guanches, an aboriginal people of the Canary Islands*Guanche language, extinct language, used to be spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century...

mummies in the museum.

External links

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