Roman remains will be undamaged

Archaeologists working in the oldest part of Leicester have said they are "pleased" to have found nothing.

The excavation was started ahead of work on a park-and-ride bus hub in St Nicholas Place.

The area is believed to the site of both the richest part of the medieval city and the Roman forum.

But the University of Leicester team said they had decided to dig to a minimum depth and it looked as if any remains would be left undisturbed.

Future generations

Tony Ratnam, from the University of Leicester Archaeological Services, admitted most people expected them to chase any remains.

"Odd as it may sound, we are quite pleased to have found nothing," he said. "There is an awful lot of very fragile, very sensitive archaeology here.

"While it would be lovely to dig that and find all these treasures, the idea is to only dig down a certain limited depth for the road works and a couple of limited associated jobs and leave it at that depth.

"That way the archaeology is not affected and is preserved there for future generations who may have more sophisticated techniques to examine it."