Two complete Roman pottery vessels, likely to date back to the second century AD, were handed over to the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro today.

The rare urns, which contained cremated remains, were discovered by archaeologists from Cornwall County Council's Historic Environment Service during preparations for the Roseland Parc Retirement Village development in Tregony. The landowners, Heather and Iain Fairbairn, had commissioned an archaeological assessment and excavation before construction of the new concept in retirement living started in 2005.

The vessels were found buried on the edge of a rectangular enclosure at the edge of the site, overlooking the River Fal. The larger vessel - a cooking pot that was probably manufactured from local clays but very similar to the black-burnished vessels from the Poole harbour area of Dorset - contained the cremated remains of an elderly woman. The other, a small handled jug made from clays from the Lizard, contained a small amount of cremated bone. A hole had been knocked in the vessel wall directly opposite the handle - an act of decommission' sometimes found in Romano-British vessels found in funerary or ritual deposits but not previously known in Cornwall.

"Although Roman period cremations are fairly commonplace in southern England, the find is highly unusual in Cornwall where burials dating to this period are rare and cremations are almost unknown," said County Council senior archaeologist Andy Jones.

"!The excavations at Roseland Parc have provided a rare glimpse of Romano-British burial practice in Cornwall. The discovery may point to the adoption of burial practices from elsewhere in Britain by the local inhabitants or perhaps it was the grave from someone outside the county.

"We are most grateful to Mr and Mrs Fairbairn for both funding and enabling us to carry out the appropriate work before they started construction on the site."

Before being handed over to the Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro, the urns were preserved at the Conservation Centre at Salisbury Museum where they were analysed by Roman ceramics specialist Henrietta Quinnell.