Nearly 2,000 unmarked graves have been discovered at that the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus, Mississippi News Now reported.

The bodies were found during a land survey of the area for construction of a new parking garage.

"Recent ground penetrating radar has shown us there are about 1,000 on the north side of this new roadway, 800 to 1,000 on the south side of this roadway," UMC spokesman Jack Mazurak told MSNewsNow.

The discovery of the graves has prompted the University to alter its construction plans. University officials are not entirely surprised to find the bodies.

"We've always known there were graves on this site, many of them unmarked. It was really a matter of knowing how many and where," Mazurak told MSNewsNow.

Some of the graves belong to people who came from the State Lunatic Asylum that was located on the grounds, Mazurak told MSNewsNow. According to The Huffington Post, the asylum operated between 1855 and 1935.

Other bodies could have come from a nearby African American church. There is also a potter's field where those who were poor were buried.

This is not the first time long lost cemeteries have been found on campus. Almost 70 wooden coffins were discovered and dug up in an area south of the campus woods. The coffins were taken to Mississippi State University for research, MSNewsNow reported.

During the '90s several unmarked graves were found and reburied in a small cemetery. The cemetery is on display on campus grounds, MSNewsNow reported.

UMC officials said they will leave the newly discovered graves where they are.

"We recognize that these are people's relatives. We hear all the time, social media, people calling us up saying I had a grandmother who was at the insane asylum," Mazurak told MSNewsNow. "We recognize there is a direct connection to people today."

See pictures of the graves here.