Construction on the expansion of the UC Davis Cancer Center was halted last week after a crew discovered what appeared to be human bones while excavating for the project.

Officials from UC Davis Medical Center and the Sacramento County Coroner's Office both expressed their belief that the remains solve a longstanding mystery about the location of an indigent cemetery used by the old Sacramento County Hospital.

Although the existence of the cemetery has been well-known, its exact location has not. There is little documentation about the cemetery, which may date back to the mid-1800s. UC Davis took over the hospital grounds in 1973.

Last year, the medical center and the Sacramento County Cemetery Advisory committee worked together to install a bronze plaque near the water tower at 45th and V streets dedicated to the people buried in the indigent cemetery.

The medical center is constructing a 7,000-square-foot addition beneath the southeast corner of the Cancer Center for the installation of a new linear accelerator.

When the crew uncovered the bones March 10, staff from Facilities Design and Construction ordered the digging to stop and contacted the coroner's office. County coroners officials announced on Friday that the bones were of archaeological but not forensic interest, since there was no evidence that a crime had been committed.

The medical center will work with an independent firm to oversee the remainder of the excavation and removal of the bones.

The bones were buried about five-to-six feet deep, and about 15-to-18 feet apart.

Although accounts of the indigent cemetery were well-known, there is no record of human remains being found during the 1990 construction of the Cancer Center. About four months ago, Facilities Design and Construction had two test holes dug to a depth of eight feet for the express purpose of seeing if human remains were at the site. The test holes found nothing.

The expansion project will provide an underground addition to the Cancer Center to house a new linear accelerator for cancer treatment. The new linear accelerator is intended to lighten the load on the two linear accelerators already at the Cancer Center. The treatment schedule for those accelerators is consistently full, but the new accelerator is expected to handle half of the current patient load. The new accelerator also will allow the medical center to remove one of the existing units and replace it with a new model.