| Chad National Museum | |
| Native Name: | Musée National du Tchad |
| Native Name Lang: | fr |
| Map Type: | Chad |
| Map Relief: | yes |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| Coordinates: | 12.1255°N 15.0774°W |
| Established: | 1962 |
| Location: | N'Djamena, Chad |
| Type: | National museum |
The Chad National Museum (French: Musée National du Tchad) is the national museum of Chad. Since November 2010, the national heritage has been highlighted in modern premises opposite the Palace of January 15, seat of the National Assembly, and next to an identical building housing the National Library.
Previously, the museum was established on October 6, 1962, in temporary quarters under the name of Chadian National Museum, Fort-Lamy, reflecting the earlier, colonial name of Chad's capital. In 1964, it moved to the former town hall, near the Place de l'Indépendance.
At the time of the Chadian National Museum's establishment, it had four rooms for paleontology, prehistory, protohistory, archives, folk arts, crafts and traditions.[1]
The prehistory room, at least in 1965, included items related to pebble culture, including material from the Angamma cliff (in the Borkou), Paleolithic implements, axes with helve-holes, nether millstones, and quartz and obsidian arrowheads. The museum at one time included a full-sized ochre reproduction of a hunting scene from the first millennium B.C. Its collection also included baked bricks, some attributed to Boulala and Babalia people. These items were discovered at the Bouta-Kabira sanctuary including human masks, bronze objects and bone tools.[2]
Many of its artifacts have been lost/looted during the unrest of the 1979 -1983 country. It had a notable collection of musical instruments.[3]
Initiated in 1996 under the aegis of the National Research Support Center (current CNRD), a paleontology room was opened there in 1999 [4] in connection with the prestigious discoveries of fossils made in the Djourab desert.
The museum mainly brings together collections relating to popular arts and traditions, archaeology, history, paleontology and Islamic heritage.[5] Many windows are dedicated to the culture of the Sao. A room dedicated to paleoanthropology allows you to observe casts of Tchadanthropus uxoris, d'Abel (Australopithecus bahrelghazali) and Toumaï (Sahelanthropus tchadensis) fossils.