The Government of the Balearic Islands has documented the first human remains during the first excavation of the V first excavation of the V Graves Planwhich is being carried out in the Ses Figueretes cemetery in Ibiza and which began last November 18.
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The work, led by the Aranzadi-ATICS team and made up of nine specialists in archaeology and forensic anthropology, is progressing in several probes open to the space where, according to preliminary studies, victims could be located.
In the first days of the intervention, a long gun projectile -a Spanish Mauser rifle- had already been identified in Sondeo 1, an indication that reinforced the working hypotheses.
In Test Pit 2, the team has located several remains, including a skull of an adult male with fractures compatible with firearm injuries.
These preliminary results are consistent with the findings of previous campaigns carried out in the same cemetery, which allowed, in 2024, the identification of three victims, the first identified on the island of Ibiza: Mariano Castelló Castelló, Bartolomé Costa Serra and Josep Vidal Ramon.
The work of the V Graves Plan will continue during the next weeks with the objective of delimiting new areas, studying the recovered remains and advancing in the identification process through forensic anthropology and genetic analysis techniques.
“The Government of the Balearic Islands reaffirms its commitment to continue with the work of exhumation and identification of people who disappeared as a result of the Civil War and Franco’s regime, in order to give them a dignified burial,” they said.
