The Chad National Museum (french: Musée National du Tchad) is the

national museum A national museum is a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In other countries a much greater numb ...

of Chad. It is located in the capital city of

N'Djamena N'Djamena ( ) is the capital and largest city of Chad. It is also a special statute region, divided into 10 districts or ''arrondissements''. The city serves as the centre of economic activity in Chad. Meat, fish and cotton processing are the ...

, near Kempinski Hotel N'Djamena. The

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

was established on October 6, 1962, in temporary quarters under the name of Chad National Museum, Fort-Lamy, reflecting the earlier, colonial name of Chad's capital. In 1964, it moved to the former town hall, near the Place de l'Indépendance. At the time of the Chad National Museum's establishment, it had four rooms for prehistory, protohistory, archives, folk arts, crafts and traditions. The prehistory room, at least in 1965, included items related to pebble culture, including material from the Amgamma cliff,

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος '' lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...

implements, axes with helve-holes, nether millstones, and quartz and obsidian

arrowheads An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, as well as to fulfill some special purposes such as sign ...

. The museum at one time included a full-sized

ochre Ochre ( ; , ), or ocher in American English, is a natural clay earth pigment, a mixture of ferric oxide and varying amounts of clay and sand. It ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange or brown. It is also the name of the colours produced ...

reproduction of a hunting scene from the first millennium B.C. Its collection also included baked bricks, some attributed to Boulala and Babalia people. These items were discovered at the Bouta-Kabira sanctuary including human masks, bronze objects and bone tools. Many of its artifacts have been lost due to the instability in the country. It has a notable collection of

musical instruments A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person who pl ...

.N'Djamena, Chad SIBMAS International Directory of Performing Arts Collections and Institutions

References

Museums in Chad National museums Museums established in 1962 Buildings and structures in N'Djamena 1962 establishments in Chad {{Africa-museum-stub

See also

References