Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) are conducting a study of the catacombs beneath the church of Saint Bartholomew Parish in Hueypoxtla, Mexico.
Saint Bartholomew Parish is a Catholic church in the Diocese of Cuautitlán which is dedicated to Saint Bartholomew the Apostle. In 1934, a large catacomb complex was discovered beneath the church belonging to Spaniards and indigenous people who lived around Hueypoxtla during the 16th to 19th century.
The catacombs are located under the central nave of the church and measure 30.4 metres in length in an east-west direction. The central corridor is flanked by two walls with columns and contains up to 72 crypts.
A project involving INAH and experts from the Bioarchaeology Laboratory of the National School of Anthropology and History (ENAH) are conducting a study of the catacombs to try and identify those interred by cross referencing with the church’s archival information.