Civil War mass grave with at least three bodies discovered in Malaga town cemetery

The archaeological team have located at least three bodies, two of which were found face down, as well as signs of violent death on one of the skulls and various artefacts that place the burial at the time of Franco's dictatorship.

The discovery marks the first conclusive result of the historical memory project the town hall is executing with a grant from the government.

Work began this week with the aim of verifying whether the cemetery still contained a mass grave containing the bodies of several victims from between 1936 and 1937.

Until now, there had only been historical documents and accounts, but the exact location within the cemetery was unknown. The initial hypothesis placed the mass grave near the memorial garden, where archaeologists carried out four test pits without finding any evidence relating to the burial under investigation.

The cooperation of local residents ultimately changed the course of the search. Two reports pointed to an area to the south-west of the site. The team opened several test pits there until they found the remains in what was known as test pit number seven.

"We have uncovered some quite significant evidence that the mass grave is located in the municipal cemetery," Mayor Francisco Javier Anet Rueda said.

The archaeologist in charge of the excavation, Jesús Román said: "Two are clearly face down and one of the skulls shows signs of violent death." In addition, certain objects and features of the burial site suggest that the grave is linked to the political violence of the period.

Research prior to the excavation identifies a group of five victims. The testimonies gathered over the last few days now suggest the possibility that there may be a second group, comprising between three and five people, linked to events that took place in February or March 1937.

Based on this information, project coordinator Ángel Medina estimates that the mass grave could contain between five and ten victims, although he pointed out that the exact figure will only be known once the burial site has been fully mapped out and all the remains have been exhumed. They cannot rule out that the excavation may yield information about other individuals not initially recorded in the archives.

Over the next few days, archaeologists will expand the excavation to determine the dimensions and layout of the mass grave. They will then begin the individual exhumation of the bodies, followed by an anthropological study to establish details such as sex, approximate age, injuries sustained and the circumstances of death.

The investigation will also involve the collection of genetic samples. The town hall and those in charge of the project will invite relatives of missing persons or victims of repressions who may be connected to the burial site. Comparing the DNA from the remains with that of their descendants will be the main method to identify the victims.

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