SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA / A news summary : The Regional Review / DEVELOPMENTS IN ORANGE, RIVERSIDE, SAN BERNARDINO AND VENTURA : Construction Halted After Bones Are Found

Workers digging a drainage ditch for a new business complex stopped work Tuesday after finding bones from a 200- to 500-year-old American Indian man.

The remains are recent in archeological terms, and there is no evidence of other bones or artifacts nearby that would disrupt construction, said work site archeological monitor Steve Dennis.

Dennis, who is observing construction at the Sycamore Commons site at Junipero Serra and Camino Capistrano roads, stopped work on the ditch Tuesday morning until Native American representatives decide what they want done with the bones.

A backhoe had dug more than 12 feet down when Dennis spotted a fragment of bone about the size of a thumbnail at 7:50 a.m. He spotted a second bone, about 1 1/2 inches by 6 inches, in the next load, and a knobby bone in the third load. As the dirt from the fourth load cascaded down he spotted a femur.

Forensic anthropologist Judy Myers Suchey identified the remains and determined their age, said Dennis.

At the main construction site, where two office buildings have gone up, workers found animal bones and shells that indicated Indians ate there, Dennis said.

They also found a few dozen artifacts, including grinding stones and a granite mortar bowl that weighs about 40 pounds, Dennis said. They will be cataloged, analyzed and be given back to the property owner, he said.