An appeal was launched on January 18 for the return of items that disappeared between January and October last year, including a medieval jug found during an archaeological dig at the site of the proposed Chichester District Museum in Tower Street, and would have formed part of a display at the new facility.

A cardboard box containing a number of artefacts was found in a trolley at the Tesco superstore in Fishbourne, and was handed into Chichester Police Station on Friday February (Feb 1) by staff from the store.

An examination of the artefacts is being made to identify which objects have been returned. However, the medieval jug from Tower Street has been confirmed as one of the items recovered.

Director of Fishbourne Roman Palace David Rudkin, said: "I am just so delighted that some of the items have been recovered, but we would want to stress that only some of the objects appear to have been found, and there are many more that still remain missing. We would appeal to anyone who has information about these objects to contact the police."

Chichester district councillor Nick Thomas said: "I would particularly like to thank to the media for making the public aware of the case, which meant they were handed in to police when they were discovered. The combination of publicity through the media and on the police's Virtual Bumblebee website has played a crucial part in that."

Sussex Police will be continuing its investigation, as many of the items are still outstanding. Police would also like to hear from any witnesses who may have seen the box of artefacts being left at Tesco in Fishbourne on the evening of Thursday, January 31.

Anyone with information about the thefts should contact Sussex Police on 0845 60 70 999 quoting serial 1034 of 02/10/2007.

• Full report in this week's Observer