Wanna see a Mummy in the Mediterranean?

A look at the Museum of Nature and Man in Santa Cruz.
By: VacationRentalPeople
 
Oct. 13, 2010 - PRLog -- In Santa Cruz is the Museum of Nature and Man, or as it is locally called the 'Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre'. This is a museum that contains many significant archaeological finds and is considered one of the number one spots for repository objects from the Prehispanic Canary Islands. The museum can also boast that it has the best natural library out of all the Canary Islands as it has palaeontological, botanical, entomological and marine and terrestrial vertebrate collections, showing that it is no slouch when it comes to research and when it comes to what people want to see. It does this by integrating the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife, the BioantropologĂ­a's Canary Institute and the Museum of Natural Sciences of Tenerife, the archaeological section of the museum was founded in 1958. The building is in the down town region of the Santa Cruz  but what is more interesting is that the building itself is use to be a civil hospital. The building itself is a fine example of neoclassical architecture from the Canaries. The southern area of Santa Cruz is a perfect area full of great apartments in Tenerife so it is a recommended area to stay in.

The museum was founded in 1958 and got its funds from the Section of Archaeology and Anthropology Museum of the City of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The first collection that was brought together was a collection of human remains that dated back to the prehistory of Tenerife, and over the next ten years funds were continuously raised in order to buy more new collections to add to the one unique collection they had  The collections were of ethnographic and archaeological materials that came from other countries and continents such as Africa and Pre-Columbia America. In the museum today most of the exhibits is prehistoric archaeological remains that are of Tenerife and other Canary Islands cultures but they do have other cultures as well.

In the museum is the largest collection on the culture of the Gauche who were the aboriginal people of the Canary Islands, that migrated to the Islands sometime between 1000 BC and 100 BC. The museum is home to a few well preserved mummies and has one of the most modern ways of presenting mummies.  

The permanent exhibition is a gallery that is dedicated to archaeology and looks at the funeral rituals of the aboriginal world. These collections are in the museum displayed as skeletal and mummified remains of the original inhabitants of the Canary Islands. There are also objects that came from buried tombs of guanche kings, one of the key highlights being the preserved mummy of San Andrés. There are also exhibits of fine collections of ceramics and fossils of prehistoric animals from the Canary Islands and the rest of the world. These include the giant lizard of Tenerife, the Tenerife Giant rat and a megalodon shark tooth. With the building being a former civil hospital, it is ironic that it looks after a few mummies keeping them preserved in a similar manner to doctors and nurses in a hospital.
End
Trending News
Most Viewed
Top Daily News



Like PRLog?
9K2K1K
Click to Share