BUILDERS working on the refurbishment of an award-winning museum uncovered rather more than they bargained for.

They came across an ancient skeleton buried in a shallow grave as they worked on the drains of the Yorkshire Museum in York.

Archaeologists were called to the scene shortly after the discovery last Friday afternoon and carefully removed the remains.

And now they are waiting further permission to take away the bones for further analysis.

The museum's curator of archaeology, Andrew Morrison, 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."

He added: "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."

The experts will now try and work out the age, sex and cause of death for the skeleton.

They will also use maps and drawings to try and research where the body was buried in relation to buildings in St Mary's Abbey precinct - in which the museum was built.

The builders also discovered a well in the same area of the museum. It is four metres deep and has three metres of water in it.

According to old plans of the museum it is located where the old pump room was, which was possibly used to bring water into the museum.

The work is part of a 2m refurbishment and the museum is scheduled to reopen on August 1.