A baby boy whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in a newspaper from 1910 with twine around his neck could have died as long as 300 years ago, an inquest heard.
Contractors renovating a flat above a pizza shop in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, made the grisly discovery of the baby's remains under floorboards in July 2024.
Durham Police was contacted by the building firm about the tiny skeleton - later found to be a full-term baby of around 40 weeks old - but have been unable to say how the baby died.
An inquest was opened on Tuesday in Crook, County Durham, which heard the steps which have been taken to examine the possible circumstances around the baby's death.
The unidentified child was named as 'Baby Auckland' for the proceedings.
The court heard that carbon dating suggested the baby may have lived at some time between 1726 and 1812 - even though the property he was found in was built in the Victorian era.
The skeleton was examined by a forensic anthropologist who determined that the baby was a boy and full-term, although it was not possible to prove whether he was stillborn.
He was found with knotted twine around his neck and was partially wrapped in a copy of a Sunday newspaper called The Umpire which was dated June 19, 1910, it was said.
Another type of radio-carbon dating was able to determine that the baby was born before the first Manhattan Project atomic bomb test in New Mexico in 1945.
After further nuclear bomb tests globally in the 1950s, it is possible to determine anyone born in the 'nuclear age' as their bodies contain higher levels of carbon-14 than those born prior to 1945.
A funeral will be held later this month for the baby in Bishop Auckland after the police and council worked together to arrange a proper burial.
The building where the baby's remains were found in the Fore Bondgate area at one stage housed a church-run mother and baby unit.
David Dent, the builder who discovered the baby's remains underneath the floorboards during the renovation of the flat, told The Sun: 'I was stood with a length of 4×2, popping these floorboards up, and we found a ball of newspaper.
'All I could see was a ribcage... We picked it up and the first my mate said was "urgh, what's that there?" I thought it must be a big pigeon.
'When I got hold of it, I looked at it and for some reason I pulled the paper off it and I've seen a little skull.
'When I saw that I was in a bit of shock. I half placed it, half dropped it on the floor.
'I noticed a little arm and a hand that fell off it.'
He added that he was traumatised by the discovery and had suffered flashbacks.
When the baby's remains were found in 2024, Detective Chief Inspector Mel Sutherland from Durham Constabulary said: 'The evidence suggests this has happened a very long time ago which makes investigating the circumstances extremely difficult but we still have a duty to that baby.
'My focus is on finding out who the baby is what happened and how it came to be under the floorboards of that house.
'As soon as we are able to I am determined that this little baby is given an appropriate and dignified funeral.'