New Book Traces Canary Mummies' Global History

A new book, The Journey of the Canary Mummies, explores a vital part of the Canary Islands' history. It serves three main purposes: to showcase academic research, to share that knowledge widely, and to help people understand and appreciate this invaluable heritage. Antonio Tejera Gaspar, who won the Canary Islands Historical Heritage Award in 2011, coordinated the book. He shared these insights with our newspaper, explaining that the volume was recently published by Juan Francisco Delgado's publishing house.

Professor Tejera Gaspar, an archaeologist, worked with several other researchers on the book. These include Ángel Ignacio Eff-Darwich Peña, Dolores Delgado Miranda, Nathalie Le Brun, Pedro Luis Pérez de Paz, Manuel Fariña González, Daniel García Pulido, Daniel Méndez Rodríguez, and Pedro Fernández Goicochea. The book documents nearly fifty mummies that have been taken from the Canary Islands over the past few centuries.

One significant discovery highlighted in the book, thanks to researcher Ángel Ignacio Eff-Darwich Peña, confirms a Guanche mummy exists in Vienna's Weltmuseum (Ethnographic Museum) in Austria. This male mummy was found in a cave on the coast of Guía de Isora. Austrian researcher Oscar Simony bought it in 1889 during his second trip to the Canary Islands, from Manuel Macías Fuertes, a doctor from San Sebastián de La Gomera.

The first part of The Journey of the Canary Mummies explores how ancient Canarians understood death, explains Tejera Gaspar. It covers their practices for handling bodies, mummification, and creating "funerary bundles," especially in Gran Canaria. For instance, Professor of Botany Pedro Luis Pérez de Paz, who also coordinated the book, describes the plant materials used for embalming. Tejera Gaspar adds that they drew on archaeological findings and accounts from chroniclers and historians from the 16th century onwards. This provides a full picture of what happened in Guanche society after someone died.

The book also highlights the significant plundering of mummies, particularly in Tenerife. Antonio Tejera Gaspar clarifies that this wasn't just about mummies taken off the islands – which is the focus of the second part of the book – but also about looting by the islanders themselves, as noted by figures like José Agustín Álvarez Rixo (1796-1883). This destruction often stemmed from a lack of knowledge and a fading connection to the Guanche culture centuries after the conquest. Tejera Gaspar points out a sad irony: "Everything that left the Archipelago is preserved and can be studied, while much of what remained here was lost forever."

Fortunately, public awareness of the Canary Islands' archaeological history has grown significantly. Tejera Gaspar notes a "qualitative leap" in understanding the islands' distant past over the last 50 years. He praises individuals who, on their own, have done remarkable work discovering and preserving sites, and increasingly report their findings to institutions. He adds that the last major archaeological destruction, of an extraordinary burial site in Uchova Cave (San Miguel de Abona) in 1933, "has not happened again."

The book also puts forward new ideas and theories. For example, it explores a possible connection between mummies and rain rituals in certain areas. It also notes that mummies from Gran Canaria, sometimes called "funerary bundles," have up to 20 layers of skin. This suggests their preservation might have been a natural process rather than intentional mummification. Tejera Gaspar emphasizes that these are "proposals, not certainties," but are crucial for advancing knowledge. He sees them as necessary steps before scientific evidence from archaeology, genetics, physics, chemistry, and biology can confirm them. He cites genetic studies, particularly from the University of La Laguna, which have already confirmed a long-held belief: the ancient Canarians originally came from North Africa.

The second part of the book examines Guanche mummies found across the globe. Antonio Tejera Gaspar praises the authors for their "magnificent job" in answering many questions. He asks: "How did Guanche mummies end up in places like Canada, Göttingen (Germany), Vienna (Austria), and St. Petersburg (Russia)? What about those reportedly taken to the Netherlands, Denmark, or Argentina? And how was the mummy discovered in Cuba, which for years was thought to be a Peruvian miner, finally identified?"

Tejera Gaspar explains that The Journey of the Canary Mummies builds on existing knowledge, adding fresh insights and perspectives. He concludes that while there are still "gaps to fill" in the story of Canary mummies abroad, this heritage is not lost. In fact, he notes, "it is very well preserved in those places." The next steps, he suggests, involve further analysis and study, along with establishing agreements between Canary Islands and international scientific institutions.