"The Journey of the Canary Mummies": The Fate of Artifacts Removed from the Islands Revealed

A new book, "The Journey of the Canary Mummies," has been released by Herques publishing house. Its coordinator is Antonio Tejera Gaspar, a renowned historian. The book tells the story of about fifty mummies who once left the Canary Islands.

Various scientists, including archaeologists and researchers, participated in the creation of the book.

The book will be presented on Thursday at the Cabildo of Tenerife, starting at 7:00 PM. Subsequently, presentations will also take place in other locations, including schools.

"The Journey of the Canary Mummies" is important because it confirms the existence of a Guanche mummy in Vienna, at the Ethnographic Museum.

This mummy is a man who was found in a cave near the town of Guía de Isora. In 1889, Austrian researcher Oscar Simony bought it from doctor Manuel Macías Fuertes.

Thanks to the research of one of the authors, Ángel Ignacio Eff-Darwich Peña, it was possible to find documents confirming the existence of the mummy. Currently, employees of the Vienna Museum are verifying this information. The mummy is stored in the museum under number 32227. Information about the find has already been passed on to officials of the Canary Islands responsible for culture.

Another interesting story is about a Guanche mummy that was sold in Tenerife in 1877. Miguel Gordillo Almeida sent it to Cuba. It is now stored in the Anthropological Museum of the University of Havana. It was previously believed to be a mummy from Peru. Research on this was conducted by Dolores Delgado Miranda.

Also, Nathalie Le Brun and Pedro Fernández Goycoechea researched a mummy that Sabino Berthelot found in the Valleseco ravine and transported to Geneva.

Manuel A. Fariña spoke about a mummy from La Isleta, which is stored in the La Plata Museum in Argentina. Antonio Tejera Gaspar added interesting sections on mummies from different islands and how they were stolen in the past. Daniel Méndez Rodríguez prepared appendices for the book.

The book took three years to create, with the collaboration of over 30 universities and museums from around the world.

The book consists of two parts. The first part tells about how mummies were made on different islands, as well as how they were stolen, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The second part lists the mummies that were taken from the Canary Islands to various cities and countries, such as Spain, Germany, Argentina, Austria, Cuba, Great Britain, Switzerland, and others. Some of these mummies were previously unknown.

The book was published with the support of the Government of the Canary Islands, local councils of various islands, and the Cajasiete-Pedro Modesto Campos Foundation.

"The Journey of the Canary Mummies" is the result of painstaking three-year work. The book has 328 pages with photographs and appendices. A convenient index allows you to read the book from any section. Thousands of historical documents, hundreds of books, and online libraries were used to write the book. Much of the information is published for the first time. The book has over 530 references to various sources.

Scientists from over 30 universities and museums around the world helped create the book free of charge.