Grave Robbing as Philanthropy: How Tombs Became Taxable Treasure in Colonial Latin America

This article argues that ancient and medieval Iberian legal tradition pertaining to buried treasure and non-Christian cemeteries influenced the development of a widespread phenomenon of licensed grave robbing in colonial Latin America. The disturbance of tombs had long been problematic, and ecclesiastical councils were still calling for the excommunication of grave robbers at the end of the sixteenth century. Scholars have often treated such tomb raiding in isolation from its medieval past, but this article explores how Juan de Solórzano Pereira (1575–1655) invoked authoritative precedents like Cassiodorus and the “Siete Partidas” to legally and morally justify the excavation of Indigenous American sepulchers.