Colonial Funerary Rituals at the Templo San Ignacio in Bogotá, Colombia

Summary

This research analyzes the funerary customs in the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries as recovered through archaeological exploration in the Jesuit church named Templo San Ignacio in downtown Bogotá, Colombia. These skeletal remains illustrate how from the moment the church was constructed in 1610, the deposition of the deceased beneath the floor was an integral part of the occupation of this sacred space on the periphery of the Spanish colonial empire. While we recovered human remains from nearly all areas of the church, there is a meaningful difference in funerary practice, particularly between primary burials that were treated with a layer of lime and secondary burials in wooden or metal boxes of skeletonized remains. Here, we explore how age and sex correlate with differences in the organization, orientation, and method of burial, as well as the kind and amount of associated artifacts. We suggest that the variety of funerary rituals within the church reflects differences in social status or affiliation with the Jesuit order.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21872