As of this Tuesday, the Guanche mummy that houses the National Archaeological Museum will no longer show in public. The institution’s technicians are removing the mummified body found in a Tenerife cave in the Barranco de Herques. From now on … It will be kept in the museum stores, accessible only to technical staff, researchers and “individuals or groups that are accredited as members of the community or ethnic or religious group of origin.”
The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, begins with this movement the withdrawal of human remains of exhibition in state -owned museums after the adoption of the ‘letter of commitment for the ethical treatment of human remains’. «The initiative responds to the update of museological criteria according to the Deontological Code of the International Museum Council (Icom) and the Museological trends», Stand out from the ministry. This document “recommends a treatment of respect and dignity, according to the interests and beliefs of its communities of origin,” they underline.
The letter affects the treatment of bones, mummified people, soft tissues or objects with elements from human remains (except hair, nails or teeth).
In addition to the Guanche mummy, this Monday will retire The mummy of Peru which is located in the Museum of America in a room near the Treasury of the Quimbaya.
The National Museum of Anthropology and Altamira were the pioneers to adopt this treatment of the human remains guarded in their collections. The first remodeled the Origen Room and withdrew the remains of Agustín Luengo, ‘The Giant Extremadura’, whose skeleton was part of the museum’s foundational collections. He also withdraw from permanent exposure to mummified people from Atacama.
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