The pre-Hispanic terracotta figure popularly known as "Idol of Tara" has returned to its usual location at The Canary Museum after a six-month stay at the National Archaeological Museum (MAN) in Madrid, where it has been part of the exhibition "The Power of the Past" that was closed last Sunday. From this Friday, April 6, the ceramic piece can be seen again in the center of Vegueta together with other idols modeled by the ancient canaries. The exhi
bition "The Power of the Past" was inaugurated on October 10th to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the founding of MAN itself and the network of Spanish archaeological museums, and in it a sample of selected materials was gathered to illustrate the process of building Spanish archaeology. Among the most significant pieces of the country's archaeological history, tara's idol, which today adds value as a symbol of the pre-Hispanic society of Gran Canaria, could not be missed. Tara's idol is also the most recognizable piece of the canary Museum, a research and outreach center that leads archaeological studies on the island since the early date of 1879
.Tara's idol entered The Canary Museum by donation from Gregorio Chil y Naranjo before 1887. Although its name refers to the pre-Hispanic village of Tara, in the municipality of Telde, the truth is that there is no data on its specific origin, since the oldest records only list "Canaria" as its place of origin. It was in the late 1950s that the piece was associated with this Teldense village, perhaps because of its similarity to another ceramic figure from which a fragment was found at that time in that enclave. The famous figure's relationship with the settlement of Tara therefore lacks a scientific b
asis. The stay of Tara's idol at the Madrid exhibition has been made possible by the thorough security measures and guarantees adopted by both MAN and the public entity Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), in charge of the organization of the exhibition. In this way it has become possible that 63,979 people, according to figures provided by AC/E, have had the opportunity to observe in Madrid this masterpiece of art and culture of the ancient canaries.