Churches as Catholic Burial Places: Excavations at the San Francisco Church, Venezuela

Abstract

In Venezuela and in other Latin American countries, little information exists on burial practices at churches used to dispose of the dead. New data has been obtained on burials and underground funerary structures found during limited excavations of the church of the colonial Franciscan convent of Nuestra Senora de la Salceda of Coro, Venezuela, occupied during the period 1620–1920. Some burials within the church could date as early as the first half of the 18th century, and individuals continued to be interred within the church through the early-20th century. Types of burials and their treatment are described.