Editing Guanches (section)

=== Funerals and mummies ===
[[File:Momia guanche museo santa cruz 27-07.JPG|thumb|right|250px|[[Mummy of San Andrés]], in the [[Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre]] ([[Tenerife]], [[Canary Islands]])]]
{{Main|Guanche mummies}}
[[Mummy|Mummification]] was not commonly practiced throughout the islands but was highly developed on [[Tenerife]] in particular. In [[Gran Canaria]] there is currently a debate on the true nature of the mummies of the ancient inhabitants of the island, as researchers point out that there was no real intention to mummify the deceased and that the good conservation of some of them is due rather to environmental factors.<ref>{{cite web|title=Conrado Rodríguez-Maffiote: "Estamos en uno de los mejores momentos en cuanto a la investigación sobre la cultura guanche"|url=https://blog.rtve.es/historiasecretamomias/2020/05/conrado.html|publisher=blog.rtve.es/File:Replica de momia guanche en la gruta del Parque del Drago, Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, España, 2012-12-13, DD 01.jpgzaccess-date=6 June 2020|date=29 May 2020}}</ref> In [[La Palma]] they were preserved by these environmental factors and in [[La Gomera]], and [[El Hierro]] the existence of mummification is not verified. In [[Lanzarote]] and [[Fuerteventura]] this practice is ruled out.

[[File:Replica de momia guanche en la gruta del Parque del Drago, Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, España, 2012-12-13, DD 01.jpg|thumb|Replica of a mummy burial in the cave of Parque del Drago, Tenerife|250x250px]]

The Guanches [[embalming|embalmed]] their dead; many mummies have been found in an extreme state of desiccation, each weighing not more than {{cvt|7|lb|0|disp=flip}}. Two almost inaccessible caves in a vertical rock by the shore {{cvt|3|mi|0|disp=flip}} from Santa Cruz on Tenerife are said still to contain remains. The process of embalming seems to have varied. In Tenerife and Gran Canaria, the corpse was simply wrapped up in goat and sheep skins, while in other islands a resinous substance was used to preserve the body, which was then placed in a cave difficult to access, or buried under a [[tumulus]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Troll|first1=Valentin R.|last2=Rodriguez-Gonzalez|first2=Alejandro|last3=Deegan|first3=Frances M.|last4=Perez-Torrado|first4=Francisco José|last5=Carracedo|first5=Juan Carlos|last6=Thomaidis|first6=Konstantinos|last7=Geiger|first7=Harri|last8=Meade|first8=Fiona C.|date=2019|title=Sacred ground; the Maipés necropolis of north-west Gran Canaria|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/gto.12262|journal=Geology Today|language=en|volume=35|issue=2|pages=55–62|doi=10.1111/gto.12262|bibcode=2019GeolT..35...55T |s2cid=134369618|issn=1365-2451}}</ref> The work of embalming was reserved for a special class, with women tending to female corpses, and men for the male ones. Embalming seems not to have been universal.<ref name=EB1911/>

In the [[Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre]] ([[Santa Cruz de Tenerife]]) mummies of original inhabitants of the Canary Islands are displayed.

In 1933, the largest Guanche necropolis of the Canary Islands was found, at Uchova in the municipality of [[San Miguel de Abona]] in the south of the island of Tenerife. This cemetery was almost completely looted; it is estimated to have contained between 60 and 74 mummies.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120629124706/http://www.google.com/hostednews/epa/article/ALeqM5js8mukVnZJz1rSsQmaz2vQN8Evcg Un estudio recuerda el expolio de la mayor necrópolis guanche jamás hallada]</ref>