Uncovering Historic Burial Types at the Alamo Church: Insights from 2019–2020 Alamo Church and Long Barrack Restoration Project at Mission San Antonio de Valero, Bexar County, Texas, USA

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Mission San Antonio de Valero and the Alamo – A Construction History from Mission to Military Fortress, Texas, United States", at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Between 2019 and 2020, archaeologists conducted a series of test excavations within the footprint of the former Mission San Antonio de Valero – known today as the Alamo – for the Alamo Church and Long Barrack Restoration Project. These investigations aimed to assist preservationists in completing a series of architectural assessments for the two remaining structures of the first Franciscan mission established along the San Antonio River in central Texas, USA. During a seventeen-month field season, 24 historic burial features and over 10,000 unassociated human remain fragments were documented. This presentation focuses on the characteristics of the burial features, including interment types and their distribution within the Alamo Church. The discussion will conclude with proposed research avenues focusing on the documented burial features, including comparative analyses of burial practices and how these features can contribute to furthering our understanding of the construction sequence of the historic Alamo Church.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Mission San Antonio de Valero and the Alamo – A Construction History from Mission to Military Fortress, Texas, United States   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2025

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow