A shallow grave containing a skeleton believed to date from a Christian burial ceremony more than 2,000 years ago has been found at the Yorkshire Museum.
Builders carrying out work as part of the £2 million refurbishment of the York site found the corpse buried close to ground level near the museum's drains. Archaeologists are now analysing the bones in an attempt to surmise the age, sex and cause of death of the body.
Archaeologists will now attempt to find out more about the body
"We were very surprised to find bones here because we had only dug 30cm – much shallower than you would expect to find a skeleton," said Curator of Archaeology Andrew Morrison.
"At this stage it is very hard to work out much about him or her, but they were buried East to West to suggest a Christian burial. Roman pottery was also found, but whether the skeleton is of the same age is not known at this stage."
Curators will use maps and drawings from St Mary's Abbey precinct – the grounds of the 11th century Benedictine abbey where the Museum was built in 1830 – to pinpoint where the burial took place. A four-metre deep well also discovered nearby is thought to have been used to bring water into the museum.
The building is expected to reopen on August 1 2010.
