Spain: Search resumes for poet Lorca’s burial place

MADRID – Archaeologists are back searching for an unmarked grave in southern Spain where the acclaimed poet Federico Garcia Lorca is believed to have been buried following his execution at the start of the Spanish Civil War.

The Return with Honor association said Monday they will first clear some forest land outside Alfacar village to bring it back to pre-war levels. Archaeologists will then begin soundings for wells where they believe the body of Lorca and others were dumped.

Lorca, one of Spain’s most renowned 20th-century poets, was among tens of thousands of civilians executed by right-wing militias and buried in unmarked mass graves during and after the 1936-1939 war.

A search in 2009 in another area nearby proved fruitless.

The latest dig began in 2014 but was halted because of logistical problems.