Gardaí believe what appear to be human remains discovered at a house in Ranelagh, Dublin, may be several hundred years old.
Workmen at a site at Upper Cherryfield Avenue made the discovery yesterday morning as they were carrying out work in the back garden of the house.
A preliminary examination was carried out by State Pathologist Dr Marie Cassidy in the afternoon, but she could not determine how old they were.
Gardaí said they were not treating the case as a criminal investigation and confirmed that the bones are thought to have been there for some time.
"The bones appear to be quite ancient," a spokesman said. "They'd be hundreds of years old."
He added that the advice of anthropologists would be sought today, when a further excavation is due to take place. The house and garden were sealed off, and gardaí remained at the scene last night.
The Edwardian semi-detached house where the remains were found was built in 1902 and sits on a quiet, secluded cul-de-sac near the Miltown Jesuit retirement home.
Its present owners, a young couple, are having the house renovated and have not been living there for several months.
They bought the house about six years ago, neighbours said, while the previous owner had lived there since the mid-1980s.
The house is being extensively renovated, with ladders, cement, wiring and building supplies scattered around the unfurnished interior and a skip dominating the small front garden.
Jenny Wong, who lives two doors down, said she was shocked when she heard of the discovery.
"My father phoned me tonight to tell me they'd found bodies here," she said. "I have four children, and I was afraid that there might have been flesh on the bodies. If there was, I'd be out of here.
"But these things happen. You'd wonder if we could be living on some kind of burial site."
Another neighbour, who declined to be named, said most of the houses had been owned by elderly people until relatively recently. In the past decade, however, they had mostly been replaced by young families.
When told of the discovery, she said: "I'm a bit shocked, but as long as they're not new bones, then I suppose that's all right."