The Estanzuela Museum of Paleontology and Archaeology (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: Museo de Paleontologia y Arqueología de Estanzuela) is a museum located in

Estanzuela Estanzuela () is a municipality in the Guatemalan department of Zacapa Zacapa () is the departmental capital municipality of Zacapa Department, one of the 22 Departments of Guatemala. It is located approximately from Guatemala City. Sports F ...

, Guatemala. The museum is dedicated to the preservation of archeological remains of Eastern Guatemala.

History

The idea with the creation was with the intention of preserving different archeological artifacts in Guatemala after the archeological discoveries by the German Karl Theodor Sapper. One of the people who promoted the idea of the creation of the museum were David Vela and the director of the Museum of Natural History of

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

, Jorge Ibarra. In the 1970s, Leonel Sisniega Otero, director of the Guatemalan Institute of Tourism at the time, requested that paleontologists Roberto Woolfolk and Bryan Patterson recover archeological pieces. In 1974, the museum opened for the first time in the presence of President Carlos Manuel Arana Osorio. In 2017, a virtual tour of the museum was added using an adapted version of

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Collections

The museum contains archaeological collections made of lithic and ceramics, as well as fossils from Eastern Guatemala. Among the collection of fossils are the remains of armadillos, prehistoric horses, toxodonts, capybaras, sloths and mastodons. The animal remains are skeletons dating back 150,000 years. It is estimated that the museum has more than 5,000 archeological pieces. The museum has exhibits related to the formation of the continents, the emergence of land animals and the formation of marine animals. In addition, the museum has exhibits related to the migration and evolution of the animals that inhabited Guatemala. Also in the museum there are short annotations of the findings made by Roberto Woolfolk. The museum also has relics found in the archaeological site of the tomb of Guaytán. The museum also contains pottery, ceramics, necklaces and plates of the

Mayan civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, arc ...

found in the

Motagua River The Motagua River () is a river in Guatemala. It rises in the western highlands of Guatemala where it is also called Río Grande, and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The final few kilometres of the river form part of the ...

basin and the southern coast of Guatemala.

References

{{reflist Museums in Guatemala 1974 establishments in Guatemala