CHESTERFIELD • Grading in part of a new subdivision site has been halted while a state agency reviews the discovery of old bones in freshly overturned earth, city administrator Mike Geisel said Wednesday.

Geisel said the bones might be several hundred years old.

Joe Harl, a consulting archaeologist who has frequently worked in the area, said the Chesterfield area had been the site of many Native American communities over the centuries.

The area affected is south of Wild Horse Creek Road near Deep Forest Drive. Geisel said a resident searching the area Monday evening for arrowheads had found several unearthed bones in ground recently graded to make way for new homes.

Work was halted Tuesday so state archaeologists could examine the location. Geisel called it an “isolated find,” and it has no effect on nearby traffic. The site is marked with orange tape to keep people out.

He said it was not on the map of the Bonhomme Creek Archaeological District, which includes sites dating back more than 4,000 years.

The bluffs have been mined for thousands of years for chert, often called flint, for arrowheads and other stone tools, Harl said.

Geisel said the state historic preservation office, part of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, would inform the city when construction could resume. Efforts to reach the department Wednesday for details were unsuccessful.

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