Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (Benguela)
The Museu Nacional de Arqueologia is a state museum of archeology in Benguela , Angola , with an area of 8000 m².
history
The current museum building on Morena Beach dates from the 17th to 18th centuries and initially served as a transit warehouse for slaves who were shipped to America . It then became the property of the Portuguese-Angolan customs. In 1976 the museum was founded by the archaeologist Luís Pais Pinto. Shortly thereafter, he assembled a scientific team that carried out archaeological research throughout the territory. In the first three decades, the museum team discovered around 50 archaeological sites in addition to the 16 already known.
One of the new sites is the Dungo V site , around 3 km from the coast at 65 m altitude, where the skeleton of a blue whale was discovered in 2001 . It is over 300,000 years old and consists of 57 parts that have been well preserved in the dry sand. The animal had been cut up by hunters and gatherers in the Paleolithic and the meat was dried in the sun or preserved after being smoked. The blue whale was so far from the coast that the sea had retreated very strongly due to climate change around 150,000 years ago.
The museum evidence once contained 9,150 exhibits, of which, however, more and more were stolen over the years.
From February 2019, the building will be renovated within a year for around 375,000 euros.
Web links
Museu Nacional de Arqueologia (PDF) (Portuguese)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Estação Arqueológica do Dungo destinobenguela.com , accessed on October 31, 2019
- ↑ Museu Nacional de Arqueologia turismoangola.com , accessed October 31, 2019
- ↑ Governo investe 200 milhões no Museu Nacional de Arqueologia plataformamedia.com , February 19, 2019, accessed on October 31, 2019