Museo de la Naturaleza y Arqueología (MUNA), ( en, Museum of Nature and Archeology, formerly es, Museo de Ciencias Naturales, es, Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre) is a museum-based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife,

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

, ( Canary Islands, Spain). It contains many significant archaeological finds and is considered the best repository of objects from the Pre- Castilian Canary Islands. The museum also houses significant

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

botanical Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

entomological Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

, and marine and terrestrial vertebrate collections, and is considered the best Natural Library of the Canary Islands. Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre 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 that constitutes an example of the

neoclassical architecture Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...

of Canary Islands. The archaeological section was founded in 1958. The museum holds the largest collection on the culture of the

Guanche Guanche may refer to: *Guanches, the indigenous people of the Canary Islands *Guanche language, an extinct Berber language, spoken by the Guanches until the 16th or 17th century *''Conus guanche ''Conus guanche'' is a species of sea snail, a ma ...

and also has one of the most modern methods of presentation of mummies, (announced in 2006 by the Cabildo de Tenerife 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 ( Canarian Spanish: , formerly ; , "embalmed ones"; , "leather-bagged ones") are the intentionally desiccated remains of members of the indigenous Berber Guanche people of the Tenerife. The Guanche mummies were made during the e ...

. It is also regarded as the most important museum of

Macaronesia Macaronesia (Portuguese: ''Macaronésia,'' Spanish: ''Macaronesia'') is a collection of four volcanic archipelagos in the North Atlantic, off the coasts of Africa and Europe. Each archipelago is made up of a number of Atlantic oceanic islands ...

History

Founded in 1958 with funds from the Section of Archeology and Anthropology Museum of the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, its first director was

Luis Diego Cuscoy Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archaic ...

, who brought together a unique collection of archaeological material and human remains from the

prehistory Prehistory, also known as pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the use of the first stone tools by hominins 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

of Tenerife. During the sixties, funds were raised to add to the collections, including ethnographic and archeological materials from Africa and

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

America. At present the museum exhibits prehistoric archaeological remains both from Tenerife and the rest of the Canary Islands 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 remains of the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands, the

Guanches The Guanches were the indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean some west of Africa. It is believed that they may have arrived on the archipelago some time in the first millennium BCE. The Guanches were the only nativ ...

, along with objects buried in the royal tombs of their kings, the Menceyes. Among the best preserved mummies are that of the '' Mummy of San Andrés'', as well as the renowned '' Guanche mummies of Necochea''. 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''), the Tenerife Giant Rat (''

Canariomys bravoi The Tenerife giant rat (''Canariomys bravoi'') is an extinct species of rodent endemic to the island of Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands, Spain. Many remains have been found during archeological digs. Most remains are from the Pleistoc ...

''), the Tenerife giant tortoise (''

Geochelone burchardi The Tenerife giant tortoise (''Centrochelys burchardi'') is an extinct species of cryptodire turtle in the family Testudinidae endemic to the island of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Characteristics It was a large tortoise, similar to t ...

''),

megalodon Megalodon (''Otodus megalodon''), meaning "big tooth", is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago (Mya), from the Early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs. It was formerly thought to be a membe ...

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

tooth and fossil remains of

trilobites Trilobites (; meaning "three lobes") are extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. Trilobites form one of the earliest-known groups of arthropods. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the At ...

, etc.

Featured Pieces

The museum features a formidable collection of mummies, ornaments, models of aboriginal settlements and pottery. The history uncovered ranges from the beginnings of the Guanche culture to the

Conquest of the Canary Islands The conquest of the Canary Islands by the Crown of Castille took place between 1402 and 1496 and described as the first instance of European settler colonialism in Africa. It can be divided into two periods: the Conquista señorial, carried out ...

. Some of its key parts are: *

– among which the famous Mummy of San Andrés * Zanata Stone – rock with Berber-Punic inscriptions) *Guanche ceramics and personal items *

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

and Aegean

amphoras An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

found on the shores of the Canary Islands *Thirteen

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

ceramics dated to 5700 years old, one of which is the oldest piece of this civilization in a Spanish museum.

Participation in projects

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 A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

. Foreign television companies such as the American JWM Productions ( Discovery Channel) and

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

(Nippon Hoso Kyokai) have filmed in 2009 documentaries on mummies in the museum. The ''Archaeological Museum of Tenerife'' took part in the Great Exhibition on mummies in 2010 which was held in Granada (Spain). The exhibition feature pieces from various civilizations and geographical environments including the 8000-year-old American "

Chinchorro The Chinchorro culture of South America was a preceramic culture that lasted from 9,100 to 3,500 years BP (7,000 to 1,500 BCE). The people forming the Chinchorro culture were sedentary fishermen inhabiting the Pacific coastal region of current ...

". There was also be a representation of the sarcophagi of Egypt, the arid zones of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, the marshes of Denmark, the "men of the ice" (like the mummy

Ötzi Ötzi, also called the Iceman, is the natural mummy of a man who lived some time between 3350 and 3105 BC, discovered in September 1991 in the Ötztal Alps (hence the nickname "Ötzi") on the border between Austria and Italy. Ötzi is believed to ...

), which appear from time to time in the cemeteries of Spanish and

mummies in the museum. Between 2014 and 2016 he held a similar exhibition entitled ''Momias, testigos del pasado'' (''Mummies, witnesses of the past''), held in the Parque de las Ciencias de Granada in Andalusia. This time the ''Archaeological Museum of Tenerife'' contributed to sample two Guanche mummies and other archaeological artifacts. As before, this exhibition was also mummified from various parts of the world and various ancient cultures remains. Meanwhile in 2015, the main state television of South Korea, is the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS), filmed the Guanche mummies museum, which will be included in a documentary titled ''"The Next Human"'', part a scientific project which aims to show the evolution of the human being through the findings of its own DNA. In the summer of 2015 a documentary was also filmed in the museum premises. The "''Misterio Adventura''" program of Italian television. Between December 2017 and June 2018, the museum hosted the exhibition "''Athanatos. Inmortal. Muerte e inmortalidad en las poblaciones del pasado''". It gathered examples of

Andean The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S l ...

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

, Asian mummies, aboriginal mummies of

and

Gran Canaria Gran Canaria (, ; ), also Grand Canary Island, is the third-largest and second-most-populous island of the Canary Islands, an archipelago off the Atlantic coast of Northwest Africa which is part of Spain. the island had a population of that ...

, and other elements related to funeral rituals. This initiative also included an extraordinary world congress of studies on mummies, as well as a research project. This congress counted with some of the best specialists in mummies worldwide, among them: Albert Zink, who studies

's mummy; Niels Lynnerup, researcher of the Bog body of northern Europe;

Salima Ikram Salima Ikram ( ur, سلیمہ اکرام; born 17 May 1965) is a Pakistani professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, a participant in many Egyptian archaeological projects, the author of several books on Egyptian archaeology, a ...

, specialist in ancient Egyptian animal mummies; Guido Lombardi, researcher of Inca mummies, etc. The exhibition commemorates the 25th anniversary of the PROJECT CRONOS, which gave the first mummies exhibition held internationally in Tenerife in February 1992, as well as the first world congress on studies on mummies.

Illustrious visitors

Among the most important personalities who have visited the museum, stands out in October 2014, Stephen Hawking, who is considered the most famous scientist in the world.

Name change

In November 2018, the Museum of Nature and Man officially changed its name to the Museum of Nature and Archeology, deleting the word "Man" to make it more inclusive with society.El Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre pasa a ser MUNA para evitar términos machistas
/ref> However, it is still better known by its old name.

References

External links

*
Independent Organ of Tenerife Museums and Centers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Museo De La Naturaleza Y El Hombre Museums in Tenerife Buildings and structures in Santa Cruz de Tenerife Archaeological museums in Spain Guanche Museums established in 1958 Archaeology of Tenerife Tourist attractions in Tenerife Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife