 The Museo Canario building in Vegueta | |
  Location within Canary Islands | |
| Established | 1879 |
|---|---|
| Location | Las Palmas Gran Canaria Spain |
| Coordinates | 28°05′59″N15°24′57″W / 28.0998323°N 15.4158675°W |
| Website | www |
El Museo Canario (English: the Canarian Museum) is an archeological museum in Las Palmas, the capital city of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands. It is dedicated to the pre-colonial history of the Canary Islands.
The museum was founded after a group of intellectuals led by Dr Gregorio Chil y Naranjo and Agustín Millares Torres met in 1879 to set up a historical society. In 1880 they opened a small museum and library on the second floor of Las Palmas City Hall with the aim of promoting the study of Canarian history. There were no higher educational institutions in Gran Canaria at the time, and the museum became the main driving force behind historical research on the island. Archaeologists from the museum organised field trips into the island interior to gather artefacts from ancient settlements of the Guanches, the original indigenous inhabitants of the Canary Islands prior to European settlement. [1]
Scholarly interest in anthropology had been fuelled in the late 19th century by the discovery of Cro-Magnon man in France in 1868, and the first Canarian archaeologists founded the museum as part of their programme to promote the mistaken idea that there was a link between the European paleolithic populations and the ancient Canarian Guanches (it is now known that Guanches were North African in origin). A number of the museum's founders had close scientific links with some of the leading French archaeologists of the day, including René Verneau, Paul Broca, Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau and Ernest Hamy. [2]
Dr Chil died in 1901, and after the death of his widow in 1913, their home in the Vegueta district of Las Palmas was bequeathed to the museum society. The museum collection relocated there in 1923, but its opening was delayed until 1930 by the economic crisis that followed World War I. The museum continues to operate today in the former Chil residence. [2]
The museum's archaeological collection mainly consists of prehistoric remains and historic artefacts originating from the early human populations on Gran Canaria, as well as artefacts originating from other islands in the Canarian Archipelago. Items on display include ceramic vessels, religious idols, pintaderas, tooled implements made of bone or wood, animal skins and other remains. [3]
As the largest archaeological collection in the Canary Islands, El Museo Canario is an important resource in the study of prehispanic society in the archipelago. It has been described by El Mundo newspaper as "one of the best archaeological museums in Spain". [4]
The museum today is a popular tourist attraction in Las Palmas, and its displays include Canarian ceramics, mummies and a reproduction of the Painted Cave, Galdar. [5]
The Canary Islands, also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish region, autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are 100 kilometres west of Morocco. They are the southernmost of the autonomous communities of Spain. The islands have a population of 2.2 million people and are the most populous special territory of the European Union.
The Guanche were the indigenous inhabitants of the Spanish Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kilometres (60 mi) to the west of modern Morocco and the North African coast. The islanders spoke the Guanche language, which is believed to have been related to the Berber languages of mainland North Africa; the language became extinct in the 17th century, soon after the islands were colonized.
Las Palmas, officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean.
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 and is part of Spain. As of 2023 the island had a population of 862,893 that constitutes approximately 40% of the population of the archipelago. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the capital of the island, is the biggest city of the Canary Islands and the ninth of Spain.
Guanche is an extinct language or dialect continuum that was spoken by the Guanches of the Canary Islands until the 16th or 17th century. It died out after the conquest of the Canary Islands as the Guanche ethnic group was assimilated into the dominant Spanish culture. The Guanche language is known today through sentences and individual words that were recorded by early geographers, as well as through several place-names and some Guanche words that were retained in the Canary Islanders' Spanish.
The Pyramids of Güímar are six rectangular pyramid-shaped, terraced structures built from lava stone without the use of mortar. They are located in the district of Chacona, part of the town of Güímar on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. The structures have been dated to the 19th century AD and they may originally have been a byproduct of contemporary agricultural techniques. These pyramids stand as high as 12 metres (39 ft).
Santa Brígida is a municipality in the northeastern part of the island of Gran Canaria in the Province of Las Palmas of the Canary Islands. Its population is 18,791 (2013), and the area is 23.81 km2. It borders Las Palmas to the west and is part of its urban area.
The flag of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands is a vertical tricolour of three equal bands of white, blue, and yellow. The state flag includes the coat of arms of the Canary Islands in the central band; the civil flag omits this. The designs were made official by the Statute of Autonomy of the Canarian Autonomous Community on 16 August 1982.
The Canary Islands have been known since antiquity. Until the Spanish colonization between 1402 and 1496, the Canaries were populated by an indigenous population, whose origin was Amazigh from North Africa.
The Movement for the Self-Determination and Independence of the Canary Islands, was a Canarian nationalist and socialist organization, founded in 1964 by Antonio Cubillo, whose objective was the secession of the Canary Islands from Spain. During the 1970s, it operated through two terrorist groups: the Guanche Armed Forces (FAG) and the Canarian Armed Detachments (DAC).
Canary Islanders, or Canarians, are the people of the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain near the coast of Northwest Africa. The distinctive variety of the Spanish language spoken in the region is known as habla canaria or the (dialecto) canario. The Canarians, and their descendants, played a major role during the conquest, colonization, and eventual independence movements of various countries in Latin America. Their ethnic and cultural presence is most palpable in the countries of Uruguay, Venezuela, Cuba and the Dominican Republic as well as the US territory of Puerto Rico.
Canarian nationalism is a political movement that encourages the national consciousness of the Canarian people. The term includes several ideological trends, ranging from a demand for further autonomy within Spain to the right to self-determination.
Museo de la Naturaleza y Arqueología (MUNA), is a museum-based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife,. 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, botanical, entomological, and marine and terrestrial vertebrate collections, and is considered the best Natural Library of the Canary Islands.
The Guanche Armed Forces was the armed wing of the Movement for the Self-Determination and Independence of the Canarian Archipelago, Spanish: Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario(MPAIAC). It was active between 1 November 1976 and late 1978, when the group unilaterally announced a "ceasefire" in what it considered to be "struggle against Spanish colonial occupation" of the Canary Islands.
Guanche mummies are the intentionally desiccated remains of members of the indigenous Guanche people of the Tenerife. The Guanche mummies were made during the eras prior to Spanish settlement of the area in the 15th century. The methods of embalming are similar to those that were used by the Ancient Egyptians, though fewer mummies remain from the Guanche due to looting and desecration.
Pintaderas are a form of stamp used by the pre-Hispanic natives of the Canary Islands. They were commonly made of fired clay. However, a number of wooden pintaderas have also been found. Most pintaderas come from archaeological sites in Gran Canaria, although natives from other islands in the Canarian archipelago used them too. Pintaderas were usually decorated with ornate geometric shapes, including zigzags, triangles, rectangles, squares and circles. These decorative motifs are similar to those found on pre-Hispanic Canarian pottery. Similar geometric patterns can also be seen in pre-Hispanic Canarian rock art
The Painted cave is an archaeological museum and park in the town of Galdar, located the northwest of Grand Canary in the Canary Islands, Spain. This centre is part of the Spanish Ministry of Culture, Historic Heritage and Museums of the town council of Grand Canary.
Dolores de la Torre Champsaur, better known as Lola de la Torre, was a Canarian musician and pioneer of musicology in the Canary Islands.
As in the rest of Spain, the majority religion in the Canary Islands is the Catholic Church. The Catholic religion has been the majority since the Conquest of the Canary Islands in the fifteenth century. This religion would largely replace the Canarian aboriginal religion through the prohibition of the latter and syncretism. According to a survey conducted in 2019, Canary Islands is the fifth autonomous community in Spain with the highest percentage of people who declare themselves to be Catholics after the Region of Murcia, Extremadura, Galicia, Aragon, and Castile and León. 76.7% of the population is Catholic.
Gregorio Chil y Naranjo was a Spanish doctor, historian and anthropologist.
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