Builders dig up skeleton from beneath Yorkshire Museum

Builders at the Yorkshire Museum found the bones in a shallow grave just 30cm deep as they were working on the building's drains.

The skeleton has been removed from the site and experts will now try to work out the age, sex and cause of death.

Archaeology curators will use maps and drawings to try to research where the body was buried in relation to buildings in St Mary's Abbey precinct, where the museum was built.

Roman pottery and a well was also found in the same area but it is unknown if the skeleton is from the same period.

Old plans of the museum show the well, which is four metres deep and contains three metres of water, is sited in the location of the old pump room and was possibly used to bring water into the building.

Andrew Morrison, curator of archaeology at the museum, said: "We were very surprised to find bones here because they had only dug 30cm - much shallower than you would expect to find a skeleton.

"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."

The Yorkshire Museum is undergoing a 2 million refurbishment and will reopen on Yorkshire Day, August 1.