VATICAN CITY - The Holy See says hundreds of bones found in an underground repository near a Vatican cemetery are too old to be from a 15-year-old girl who disappeared in 1983.

The Vatican said Sunday that examinations of the bones and thousands of bone fragments determined that all dated from before the 20th century.

The remains were found under a stone slab after the family of Emanuela Orlandi requested to have the 19th-century Teutonic cemetery tomb of a princess opened based on a tip.

The Vatican says its outside expert has rejected a family request for laboratory testing of some 70 bones from the underground cache because they're "very ancient."

Emanuela, the daughter of a Vatican employee who lived in Vatican City, disappeared after a music lesson in Rome.