Wikipedia writes of St Peter's Basilica, Rome:One of the holiest sites of Christendom in the Catholic tradition, it is traditionally the burial site of its namesake Saint Peter, who was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, first Bishop of Antioch, and later first Bishop of Rome. Although the New Testament does not mention Peter's presence or martyrdom in Rome, ancient tradition holds that his tomb is below the baldachino and altar; for this reason, many Popes, starting with the first ones, have been buried there. =============== Between 1939 and 1949 the archaeological team had uncovered a complex of mausoleums under the foundations of St. Peter's Basilica, dating to the 2nd and 3rd centuries.[2] Most impressive was the small monument under the present altar of the church which they believed was built as early as AD 160 to mark the tomb of St. Peter below it. In 1942, the Administrator of St. Peter's, Monsignor Ludwig Kaas, found remains in a second tomb in the monument. Being concerned that these presumed relics of a saint would not be accorded the respect they deserved, and having little understanding of correct archeological procedures, he secretly ordered these remains stored elsewhere for safe-keeping. After Kaas' death, researcher Margherita Guarducci discovered these relics by chance. She informed Pope Paul VI of her belief that these remains were the those of St. Peter. Bone testing revealed that the remains belonged to a man in his sixties. On June 26th 1968 Paul VI announced that the relics of St. Peter had been discovered. Tracing the Original Tombs There will probably always be controversy over the identity of the remains in the tomb. To ensure that the tomb was properly identified, it is necessary to trace the movement of the relics over the millennia. Often the histories refer to the saints in the plural, meaning both Apostles, Peter and Paul. There might have been little difficulty in obtaining the body of the Apostle after his martyrdom. It is believed that the bereaved Christians seem to have followed their usual custom in burying him as near as possible to the scene of his suffering. He was laid in ground that belonged to Christian proprietors, by the side of a well-known road leading out of the city, the Via Cornelia (site of a known pagan and Christian cemetery) on the hill called Vaticanus.[3] The actual tomb seems to have been an underground vault, approached from the road by a descending staircase, and the body reposed in a sarcophagus of stone in the center of this vault. Legend says that the tomb of St. Peter was at first marked simply by a red rock, for safety's sake as those wishing to pay respects or make pilgrimage to the site might recognize the meaning of the red rock while it would have no meaning to nonbelievers. We have definite evidence of the existence of the tomb (trophoea) here at the beginning of the second century, in the words of the priest Caius. .[4] ============= It looks, from the evidence, therefore: 1. Tradition places the burial of Peter there. 2. A tomb reputedly of Peter, has been there since the 2nd century. 3. Bones have been found of the right age. BUT whether they belong to Peter can never be said with certainty unless some document turns up saying "I......buried Peter in (this place)" and there is an unbroken historical linke from that document to the bones found. (PS I have been to St Peters, and, whether or not the bones are there, it is still a fantastic piece of architecture and history)

actually the bones of Saint Peter are buried in Jerusalem...as Peter was the apostle to the Jews and Paul to the gentiles..the bible makes no mention at all of Peter being in Rome..and when Paul wrote his letter to the Romans he mentioned over 2 dozen Roman church leaders and never once said anything about peter...he only mentioned that Timothy was with him