An expert with the state Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation was in Freeland on Tuesday examining ancient human remains discovered at a home construction site.

The bones were found last week by men digging a septic system at the new home near Robinson Beach on Mutiny Bay. Workers called police.

Island County Coroner Robert Bishop confirmed the bones are human and old.

“They’re prehistoric,” he said.

Some animal bones may be mixed in, but the human remains may be Native American, he said.

That determination, however, is the purview of state experts with the historic preservation office. The case was officially turned over to that agency, Bishop said.

Guy Tasa, the state physical anthropologist with the agency, said he would examine the bones at the job site Tuesday, but declined to provide details of just what he would look for to determine their origin.

“I won’t really know until I get there,” Tasa said.

Attempts to reach the agency’s director for more information Monday were unsuccessful.

The remains were unearthed early Friday, Aug. 28, by South Whidbey-based M.S.V. Construction.

Company owner Mason Strevel said that this was the first time he’s found human bones in 20 years of working on the island, but that it was immediately clear what they were.

“We went, ‘Oh boy, shut her down,’” Strevel said.

“Once we saw the round part of the skull, there was really no doubt what it was.”

News of the discovery led to lots of speculation.

Strevel said he’d already heard one rumor that a small hole in what appears to be part of a skull was the result of a gunshot.

Bishops said he could make no definitive conclusions other than that indicators, such as the color of the remains, made it clear they were very old.

If the bones turn out to be Native American, it will spark a process that involves at the very least informing relevant tribes of their discovery.

Strevel said they are keeping busy with work inside the house, but hopes the delay won’t be too long.