3000-year-old figurine found at bottom of a lake has fingerprints of its maker

An Iron Age-era statuette has been discovered at the bottom of a lake in Italy. The clay figurine was found during ongoing work at the underwater archaeological site of Gran Carro di Bolsena in Aiola, Italy. The statue was fished out of the volcanic Lake Bolsena and is an unfinished clay figure of a woman.

It dates back to sometime between the 10th and 9th centuries BC. According to a translated statement by Italy's Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape, the clay statuette is so fresh that it “still shows the marks of the fingerprints” of its maker. The figure was likely covered with some sort of cloth years back as there is an imprint of a plot of fabric under its chest.

Experts say that such pieces were usually kept in places where the remains of the dead were stored. However, the site where divers found the statuette was once a residential area. But this does not mean that it could not have been used for rituals, albeit of a domestic nature. The Italian Cultural Property Restoration team worked with government divers to ensure that the statuette was brought out of the waters safely.

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Historical significance of Gran Carro di Bolsena

It wasn't until 1991 that Gran Carro di Bolsena became a site of archaeological interest. Researchers at the time found that the pile of shapeless stones that form Aiola are linked to hot thermal water springs. Wooden poles and ceramic fragments were found southwest of the lake and were found to be tied to the early Iron Age. Springs throw out gas and minerals as hot as 40°C and might have formed at least four other rock formations, which might be a little smaller than Aiola.

Another find in 2020 led experts to determine that Aiola was an integral part of the village during the early Iron Age. This was a mound of earth found under the stones in 2020 in the area where wood and ceramic originate. Coins and pots from the Constantinian era later found prove people lived at the site until late in the Roman Empire.