Museo de la Naturaleza y Arqueología facts for kids
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| Established | 1958 |
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| Location | Fuente Morales Street, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain |
| Key holdings | Guanche culture items, mummies, Zanata Stone, amphora |
| Public transit access | Station Foundation, Tenerife Tram |
The Museum of Nature and Archaeology (MUNA) is a cool museum located in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. It used to be called the Museum of Nature and Man.
This museum is super important because it holds many amazing archaeological finds. It's considered the best place to see ancient objects from the Canary Islands before Spanish rule.
MUNA also has huge collections about nature. You can learn about old animals (paleontology), plants (botany), insects (entomology), and animals that live in the sea and on land. It's like the best natural history library for the Canary Islands!
The museum brings together the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, the Canary Institute of Bioanthropology, and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Tenerife. You can find it in the center of Santa Cruz, in an old hospital building. This building is a great example of neoclassical architecture from the Canary Islands. The part of the museum about archaeology started in 1958.
MUNA has the biggest collection about the Guanches, who were the original people of the Canary Islands. It also has a very modern way of showing off mummies. This museum is known all over the world and takes part in international meetings about archeology. It's especially famous for its incredible collection of Guanche mummies. Many people think it's the most important museum in the Macaronesia region.
Contents
Discovering the Museum's History
The museum first opened in 1958. It started with items from the Archaeology and Anthropology Museum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Its first director was Luis Diego Cuscoy. He gathered a special collection of old tools, pottery, and human remains from the prehistory of Tenerife.
In the 1960s, the museum added more items. These included cultural and archaeological pieces from Africa and Pre-Columbian America. Today, the museum shows ancient archaeological finds from Tenerife and the other Canary Islands. It also has items from other cultures around the world.
What You Can See: Permanent Exhibitions
One of the main parts of the museum is a special area about archaeology. It shows how the ancient people of the Canary Islands lived and how they buried their dead. You can see skeletons and mummified remains of the original inhabitants, the Guanches. There are also objects that were buried in the royal tombs of their kings, called Menceyes.
Some of the best-preserved mummies include the Mummy of San Andrés. You can also see the famous Guanche mummies of Necochea.
The museum also displays a great collection of ancient pottery. You can also see fossils of prehistoric animals. These include animals from the Canary Islands and other parts of the world. Look out for the giant lizard of Tenerife (Gallotia goliath). There's also the Tenerife Giant Rat (Canariomys bravoi). And don't miss the Tenerife giant tortoise (Geochelone burchardi). You can even see a megalodon shark tooth and fossil remains of trilobites!
Amazing Things to See: Featured Pieces
The museum has an amazing collection of mummies. You can also see old ornaments, models of ancient villages, and pottery. The exhibits tell the story of the Guanche culture. They show how it developed until the Conquest of the Canary Islands.
Here are some of the most important items you can see:
- Guanche mummies – including the famous Mummy of San Andrés.
- Zanata Stone – a rock with ancient Berber-Punic writing on it.
- Guanche ceramics and personal items.
- Mediterranean and Aegean amphoras – these are ancient jars found near the Canary Islands.
- Thirteen Egyptian ceramics – these are about 5700 years old! One of them is the oldest Egyptian item in a Spanish museum.
- A tour of the museum
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The Museum's Role in Big Projects
In 1992, the Museum of Nature and Man joined an international research project about mummies. It was called PROJECT CRONOS. This project included a worldwide exhibition of mummies. Because of this, the Museum of Nature and Man is known globally for how it preserves mummies.
Big TV companies have filmed documentaries about mummies at the museum. For example, American JWM Productions (Discovery Channel) and Japanese NHK filmed here in 2009.
The Archaeological Museum of Tenerife also took part in a huge mummy exhibition in 2010. This exhibition was held in Granada, Spain. It showed mummies from many different cultures and places. These included the 8000-year-old American "Chinchorro" mummies. There were also sarcophagi from Egypt, mummies from the dry areas of the Andes, and "ice men" like the mummy Ötzi. Of course, there were also Guanche mummies from the museum.
Between 2014 and 2016, a similar exhibition called Momias, testigos del pasado (Mummies, witnesses of the past) took place. It was held at the Parque de las Ciencias de Granada in Andalusia. The Archaeological Museum of Tenerife sent two Guanche mummies and other old items for this show. Again, this exhibition featured mummified remains from various ancient cultures around the world.
In 2015, the South Korean TV channel KBS filmed the Guanche mummies at the museum. This was for a documentary called "The Next Human". This science project aims to show how humans have evolved by studying their DNA.
In the summer of 2015, an Italian TV show called "Misterio Adventura" also filmed a documentary at the museum.
From December 2017 to June 2018, the museum hosted an exhibition called "Athanatos. Inmortal. Muerte e inmortalidad en las poblaciones del pasado". This show brought together mummies from Egypt, the Andes, Muisca culture, Asia, and aboriginal mummies from Tenerife and Gran Canaria. It also included other items related to funeral rituals.
This event also featured a special world congress about mummy studies. Many top experts on mummies from around the world attended. These included Albert Zink, who studies Ötzi's mummy. Also there was Niels Lynnerup, who researches bog bodies from northern Europe. Salima Ikram, an expert in ancient Egyptian animal mummies, and Guido Lombardi, who studies Inca mummies, also participated. This exhibition celebrated 25 years since PROJECT CRONOS. That project held the first international mummy exhibition in Tenerife in February 1992. It also hosted the first world congress on mummy studies.
Famous Visitors to the Museum
One of the most famous people to visit the museum was Stephen Hawking. He is considered one of the most famous scientists in the world. He visited in October 2014.
Why the Name Changed
In November 2018, the Museum of Nature and Man officially changed its name. It became the Museum of Nature and Archaeology. The word "Man" was removed to make the name more welcoming to everyone in society. However, many people still know it by its old name.
See also
In Spanish: Museo de la Naturaleza y la Arqueología para niños
- List of museums in Spain
