Bani Indo-Cuban Museum

The Bani Indo-Cuban Museum preserves the richest and most complete collection of objects from indigenous cultures in the entire insular Caribbean.

The Bani Indo-Cuban Museum, the only one of its kind in Cuba, is located in a rationalist-style building in the urban center of the Banes Municipality in Holguin - considered the Archaeological Capital of Cuba - in the province of Holguin, a town that has great potential archaeological.

As a result of patient searches and archaeological investigations, more than a thousand pieces made of different materials such as stones, bones, shells, ceramics and metal have been collected to be permanently exhibited in this picturesque Bani Indo-Cuban Museum, specialized in aboriginal culture. , which also houses thousands of other objects that are still in the process of identification.

The most prominent figure of the Bani Indo-Cuban Museum is a valuable and curious gold idol - found on the Santana Sarmiento farm, in the Yaguajay region - with Mesoamerican influence, as well as an indigenous skull on whose forehead a hole similar to a footprint appears. of a bullet, a matter of controversy among scientists.

The sample in general corresponds fundamentally to the two main stages of human habitation in the territory of Holguin. Objects of possible Indo-Hispanic contact and transculturation in the period of the conquest in Holguin can also be appreciated.

Currently, the Bani Indo-Cuban Museum is also a teaching institution since it develops community courses with Aboriginal themes, carries out activities inside and outside the premises with children, young people and other audiences about the history of the town, teaches participation games, and gives talks. and conferences, among other activities.

The Bani Indo-Cuban Museum was inaugurated on November 28, 1965. Since the triumph of the revolution in Cuba, this valuable property was destined for the assembly of said cultural institution, due to the great importance of the archaeological collection, donated by the relevant collector Orencio Miguel Alonso.

Given the patient and creative work of its technicians, specialists, the archeology department of Holguin, and all its collaborators, we can affirm that the Bani Indo-Cuban Museum preserves the most complete and representative aboriginal archaeological collection in Cuba. Ceramic works, ornamental and work designs, tools, superstructural objects, handles, vessels are part of the museum collection.

Another of the most important exponents found in the Bani Indo-Cuban Museum is a square-shaped effigy vessel, made of clay, the only one of its kind found in Cuba.

The Bani Indo-Cuban Museum has 4 exhibition rooms with important samples of Indo-Cuban archeology, a sample of the month and a temporary exhibition. The installation protects more than 22 thousand pieces belonging to the aboriginal cultures that in their time resided in different areas of Banes, known for its potential as the archaeological capital of Cuba.

The studies carried out in this regard ensure that the aboriginal population settled in that territory of Holguin came from Central America and northern Venezuela such as the Aruacos, who arrived in these Cuban lands through maritime routes through the Caribbean and the Antilles.