The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH, National Institute of Anthropology and History) is a Mexican federal government bureau established in 1939 to guarantee the research, preservation, protection, and promotion of the prehistoric, archaeological, anthropological, historical, and paleontological heritage of Mexico. Its creation has played a key role in preserving the Mexican cultural heritage. Its current national headquarters are housed in the Palace of the Marqués del Apartado.
INAH and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura are tasked with cataloging and protecting monuments and buildings regarded as cultural patrimony. INAH is entrusted with 'archaeological' (pre-Hispanic and paleontological) and 'historical' (post-Conquest 16th to 19th centuries) structures, zones and remnants, while INBAL is entrusted with 'artistic' buildings and monuments (properties that are of significant aesthetic value as deemed by a commission). Worthy edifices are catalogued in the Registro Público de Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicos e Históricos (Public Register of Archeological and Historic Monuments and Zones).
Currently, the INAH carries out its work through a Technical Secretariat which supervises the performance of its main duties and whose tasks are distributed among its seven National Coordination Offices and 31 Regional Centers throughout the states of the Mexico.
This bureau is responsible for the over 110,000 historical monuments, built between the 16th and 19th centuries, and for 29,000 of Mexico's estimated 200,000 pre-Columbian archeological zones found throughout the country. One hundred and fifty of the archeological sites are open to the public.
The INAH also supervises over a hundred museums. These are found across the country and are categorized according to the extension and quality of their collections, geographical locations, and number of visitors. Over 500 Teotihuacan murals are in storage at the INAH.
The INAH recognises its most famous researchers with the Emeritus degree. As of 2009, only 16 individuals have been named emeritus researchers:
- Dra. Beatriz Barba Ahuatzin
- Dra. Beatriz Braniff Cornejo
- Dr. Fernando Cámara Barbachano
- Dra. Johanna Faulhaber Kamman (1911–2000)
- Arqlgo. Francisco González Rul Hernández C. (1920–2005)
- Dra. Doris Heydenreich Zelz (1915–2006)
- Dra. Sonia Lombardo Pérez Salazar
- Mtro. Leonardo Manrique Castañeda (1934–2003)
- Mtro. Eduardo Matos Moctezuma
- Dra. Margarita Nolasco Armas
- Dr. Julio César Olive Negrete
- Mtra. Alicia Olivera Sedano
- Dr. Román Piña Chan (1920–2001)
- Mtro. Arturo Romano Pacheco
- Mtro. Javier Romero Molina (1910–1986)
- Mtro. Constantino Reyes-Valerio (1922–2006)
- "LEY FEDERAL SOBRE MONUMENTOS Y ZONAS ARQUEOLOGICAS, ARTISTICOS E HISTORICOS". Secretariat of Public Education. Retrieved November 23, 2014.
- Robles García, Nelly M., ed. (November 2007). "The practice of archaeology in Mexico: Institutional obligations and scientific results" (PDF). The SAA Archaeological Record. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology. 7 (5): 9–43. ISSN 1532-7299. OCLC 45474337. Archived from the original (PDF online version) on 2008-09-11.
- Rojas Delgadillo, Norma (2006). "Cultural Property Legislation in Mexico: Past, Present and Future". In Barbara T. Hoffman (ed.). Art and Cultural Heritage: Law, Policy And Practice. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 114–118. ISBN 978-0-521-85764-2. OCLC 60245454.
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