The President, Rosa Dávila, appreciates the “willingness” of the ministry and sees a “glimmer of hope” emerging
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 6th June (EUROPA PRESS) –
A team from the Cabildo of Tenerife is scheduled to meet with the Secretary of State for Culture, Jordi Martí, on Thursday of the following week to explore the potential transfer of the ‘Mummy of Erques’, currently housed in the National Archaeological Museum, to the island.
This was announced at a press conference by Tenerife’s President, Rosa Dávila, who has praised the Ministry’s willingness to engage in discussions as a promising sign, emphasizing that this mummy, considered the best-preserved worldwide, “serves as a symbol of identity for Canarians, with immeasurable historical and cultural significance.”
She also highlighted the support from the Government of the Canary Islands in these negotiations and stressed that there are no longer any valid excuses regarding conservation or transportation conditions, pointing out that mummies have been successfully brought to the island from Argentina as an example.
“This is where the Tenerife mummy belongs. It is a matter of justice, not only cultural but also for the heritage of Tenerife. This is the rightful place for the mummy, as it is part of Tenerife’s heritage, and therefore should be located in Tenerife,” she underlined.
The Minister of Culture of the Cabildo of Tenerife, José Carlos Acha, highlighted that “the mummy should once again be placed in its cultural and geographical context, and the MUNA (Museum of Nature and Archaeology) has exceptionally proven technological capabilities with a dedicated team of conservators and advanced techniques to ensure safe mobility.
He explained that humidity, lighting, the presence of pests, smoke, or any insects can be controlled using filters in specially designed chambers to prevent any harm.
Conrado Rodríguez, the Director of the Archaeological Museum of Tenerife and the Canary Institute of Bioanthropology, mentioned that the relocation of this mummy has been requested since 1976, highlighting the “discrepancy” when, in 2011, three other mummies were successfully brought from Madrid without any issues.
MUNA TEAM RECOGNISED AS TOP-NOTCH
Like Dávila, he commended the Ministry’s “willingness” to initiate a “dialogue” and also emphasised the exceptional quality of the MUNA conservation team, considered among the best globally and a leading authority in mummy conservation and exhibition.
Currently, there are around ten Guanche mummies located across various parts of the world.
For instance, there is one in Canada and another in Havana, Cuba, previously misidentified as a Peruvian miner but later confirmed in 2018 to be Guanche. In Europe, they are present in Saint Petersburg, Vienna, Austria, and Cambridge, with each having unique features, such as incisions on the buttocks, thighs, and abdominal sand insertions, as explained by Conrado.
Apart from the Madrid mummy, there are several others housed in institutions across Paris, with Göttingen possessing an exceptional specimen comparable in conservation quality to Madrid.
‘The Mummy of Erques’ was discovered in a cave in the Erques ravine in Tenerife in 1763, believed to have originated from a large burial cave where numerous mummies were found in the late 18th century.
One of the five Guanche mummies originally kept at the National Museum of Anthropology in Madrid during the 1970s, it was transferred to the National Archaeological Museum when the others were returned to Tenerife.
