La Iglesia de San Miguel Chapultepec, imágenes de la muerte olvidada

Abstract

Among the archaeological activities conducted in Chapultepec Forest in Mexico City in 2005 during the construction of a gate in the entrance to the Lions’ Garden, archaeologists detected to viceregal cemetery, where human skeletons were buried according to Catholic custom, while others were wrapped in fiber mats and put in ceramic vessels. These remains suggest that with the introduction of Catholicism to the region in the 16th century, religious centers were built around indigenous communities for purposes of reduction, a process also reflected in the bone characteristics and associated artifacts. The destruction in this section of the cemetery was caused by the introduction of drinking water infrastructure in the 1960s and the subsequent construction of the Avenida Circuito Interior. Nevertheless, forty-eight skeletons were salvaged, which attest to indigenous and viceregal life in the 16th to 19th century.