Grave Found by Worker at Mission
The remains of a Juaneno Indian teenager who died in the early 1800s were found last week during restoration work at Mission San Juan Capistrano near the Great Stone Church, a mission official said Monday.
A mason’s assistant found a skull and some teeth about five feet below the surface as workers dug a hole to rinse mortar for the structure, mission director Jerry Miller said. The remains will be reinterred in the same spot, a decision that “reflects the mission’s practice to bury the deceased near the grounds of the church,†he said.
Mission archeologists based their estimate of the teen’s age by the amount of wear to the teeth, Miller said. The sex and cause of death could not be determined.
Anthony Rivera, chairman of the Juaneno archeology tribal council committee under the direction of leader Jean Frietze, said exhuming the body for analysis would desecrate a burial site.
“It is never good to reopen a burial site because it is a resting place of one of our ancestors,†he said. “The main concern of the majority of the Juanenos is the well-being and welfare of our ancestors.â€
*
Times correspondent Matt Kieta contributed to this report.
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