Burial Practice at Mission San Antonio de Valero, Bexar County, Texas, USA

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Indigenous Practices and Material Culture: Seventy Years of Mission Life" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Between 2019 and 2020, archaeologist conducted a series of test excavations within the footprint of the former Mission San Antonio de Valero – known today as the Alamo. Excavations were completed 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. During a seventeen-month field season, 24 historic burial features were documented within the footprint of the Alamo Church. Twelve of the historic burial features were exhumed to allow assessments to continue while the remaining 12 were preserved in place. This presentation will include an analysis of ethnohistorical accounts from the former mission to determine continuities and breaks in traditional burial practices at Mission San Antonio de Valero based on the excavation results. A brief review of Texas mission burial practices documented in the archaeological record will also be examined for comparison.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• Indigenous Practices and Material Culture: Seventy Years of Mission Life

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 51505