NATCHEZ &8212; Archeologists working at the site of a future hotel in Natchez have uncovered pieces of the city&8217;s past.

Mississippi Department of Archives and History archeologists and crews started Tuesday to examine the site, searching for historical artifacts before hotel construction begins.

City Attorney Walter Brown was hoping to ask the MDAH permit board today to grant approval for developer Thomas Bauer of New Orleans to build a hotel on the Canal Street site, bordered by Franklin, Main and Broadway streets.

But according Jack Elliott Jr., he and fellow MDAH archeologist David Abbott are unlikely to finish the archeological study of the proposed site they started Tuesday prior to today&8217;s meeting.

The request may have to wait until March.

The department mandates archeological studies be done on sites that are thought to be historic before the sites can be developed.

&8220;And just about any site in the center of Natchez can be considered historical,&8221; Elliott said.

Starting Tuesday, city public works crews began using a backhoe to excavate the southeast corner of the site.