The Guanche Mummy of Tenerife, which Urtasun has buried in the warehouses of the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) without prior notice, has arrived from the twelfth or twelfth centuries to the present day in a very delicate health state. Two reports prepared by Ministry professionals … of culture in 2015 and 2017 alerted the risk of subjecting this specimen to any change in temperature or moisture, which includes “movements within the building itself.” Teresa Gómez Espinosathe conservative who watched over the good condition of the Guanche mummy until his retirement, in 2021, showed ABC yesterday his concern about the minister’s decision: “taking it out of her showcase and taking her to another environment is not the best idea.” MAN sources, meanwhile, ensure that the mummy has been relocated to a showcase-carro that “replicates the conditions” in which it had been maintained since 2015.
Discovered in the Barranco de Herques, south of Tenerife, the Mummy Guanche arrived in August 1764 to Madrid, a city in which it has remained since then. After going through several destinations, in 1910 he became part of the current National Museum of Anthropology (MNA), where it remained until 2015, when the Ministry of Culture decided to transfer it to MAN. “We spent a year working with her, making all the measurements of environmental conditions,” recalls Gómez Espinosa. «A project and a contest was made to build a specific showcase, better than those of the Egyptian mummies, because apart from controlling the temperature and humidity conditions it included filters for air recirculation. It cost a lot of money, it was very expensive ». The State paid 130,610 euros to the company Ypunto Ending for the manufacture and installation of the Canary Islands thematic unit in the permanent exposure of the MAN. It included the specific showcase for the mummy and a second space for archaeological objects of interest of Guanche culture.
He did not spare in resources to build the showcase. A MAN report prepared in 2017 after a request from a Tenerife museum for temporary exhibition made it clear: «Taking into account as a priority objective that the conservation conditions of the Guanche mummy are the best possible, we proceeded to design and build A state -of -the -art showcase so far in its kind, which has been the result of the work of a wide interdisciplinary team, without being repaired in the high cost of it. The showcase has a constant ventilation system incorporated, with air filtering, to prevent the specimen from being affected by biological or chemical degrading agents ».
From Monday, that showcase is empty and unused. It is covered with a black cardboard with the legend “showcase in remodeling.” Museum sources explain that Mummy Guanche has been relocated in the area of warehouses where the Egyptians are preserved. «It is perfectly located in a showcase-carro, which is expressly made for mummies, and is in a heated area, with a constant air regulation and adequate moisture and temperature, which are recorded every 15 minutes with a sensor. The transfer was made by the conservation team and was carried out with a special suit and FTP2 masks, following the protocols of the ‘Manual of Good Practices for the preservation of mummies’, of 2012. The conservation is optimal, ”says the MAN.
Teresa Gómez Espinosa believes that the mummy has been able to suffer alterations with the move. «It costs a lot to stabilize the mummies, for their exhibition or in a warehouse. If we have been so long and suddenly they take it to a warehouse … Obviously, this will influence the state of conservation of the mummy, which is what worries me. Gómez Espinosa was involved in the transfer of 2015 and then took care of her in the man. After so much investment of human, technical and economic resources, the retired conservative shows her concern about the damages that the mummy may suffer with the changes, which take time to face. «I am worried about what can happen to her. Although it is very well preserved, it has its problems, ”he adds.
The archaeological ensures that conservation in a showcase-carro is “optimal” and that it replicates the conditions of these last nine years
The 2017 report found cracks, fissures, small cuts and some holes in the mummy. «It is the cracks that represent a higher risk, cracks that are located in the limbs and the thorax and among which it is worth highlighting the one that affects the left arm, because it has caused partial detachment of the skin and has exposed the tissues internal ». For these reasons, and taking into account that the mummies are fragile and vulnerable to the fluctuations of temperature and moisture, a transfer of it not only to Santa Cruz de Tenerife was considered as a very high risk, but to any other place where I can be affected by environmental changes or other degrading agents ». To these circumstances we had to add “the risks of manipulation and transport, taking into account that they increase when the naked mummy is found for having lost, at some indeterminate moment, the characteristics of goats that wrapped and protected the bodies miralized guanches.”
Another report prepared in 2015 by the director of the Museum of Anthropology, Fernando Sáez Lara, before the transfer of December to the man, warned of the “extreme fragility” of the good. «Any exposure to movements and changes in temperature and humidity could have irreparable consequences. For this reason, they have not only rejected in the last two decades how many loan requests for temporary exhibitions have reached the museum, but the movements within the building have been avoided. The 2017 report also advised to attend to loan requests.
In these nine years, the mummy has only moved from the Man on one occasion. It was in June 2017, to carry out a study at the Quirónsalud hospital in Madrid. The piece was out of the museum and the transfer was documented. On this occasion, the Ministry of Culture has not disseminated a single photograph of its withdrawal to the stores or has revealed the reports on which its decision is based.
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