ROMAN remains have been found on the site of a planned York housing development, prompting calls for a further archaeological dig and for artefacts to be offered to museums.

Parts of Roman skeletons and an urn were discovered during an excavation of the garden at 2a Trentholme Drive, off The Mount, where the existing house is set to be demolished to make way for a new home.

One resident, Sophie Morrison, said there should be a full dig across the site after the existing house is demolished to search for any significant Roman artefacts, and claimed any found should be made available to the Yorkshire Museum. "As Indiana Jones said, 'That belongs in a museum,'" she said.

She added that hundreds of Roman skeletons and a sarcophagus had been found during a major dig of the land next door in 1951.

>>> A chance discovery by York children in 1951 led to remarkable Roman finds. Read the archaeological report here.

Fellow residents Carol Cartridge, Jaine Prendergast and Ross Lee supported her calls but Nick Pearson, of On Site Archaeology, which carried out the recent excavation, said it was normal practice for archaeological finds to be preserved in situ rather than removed.

He also said it was generally accepted it was most appropriate for both skeletons and cremated remains to be left where they had been buried.

House developers Mike and Barbara Nicholas said they had followed guidelines to the letter and said the house was to be built on a 'concrete raft' of foundations to ensure archaeological remains were preserved as much as possible.

They also said that three quarters of the land at 2a had already been excavated in 1951, at the same time as land under the property next door.

City of York Council said the conditions of planning permission for redevelopment of the site required an archaeological excavation and watching brief.

Council archaeologist John Oxley said a small amount of Roman 'disarticulated remains' - parts of skeletons - were carefully recovered by On-Site Archaeology during a recent excavation and subsequently reburied on site.

"Three burials and a cremation in an urn were also recorded," he said. "These have been preserved on site in-situ."

He said everything had been undertaken in accordance with best ethical and archaeological practice, and would continue to be. "As such, archaeologists will excavate and remove any burials or other archaeological deposits that lie above the formation levels for the new foundations.

"They will also ensure that where remains will not be disturbed by the development they will be left in-situ and preserved for possible archaeological investigation in the future.”