Emily Chan
A 3,000-year-old clay figurine depicting an ancient goddess was recently fished from the depths of Lake Bolsena in central Italy. Archaeologists believe the crudely formed figurine was crafted for use in domestic rituals.
For several millennia, the artifact has been submerged underwater. Yet, it still bears the handprints of its creator.
Divers had been working to construct an underwater path at the Gran Carro archaeological site in Lake Bolsena as part of Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan when they discovered a clay figurine.
The Gran Carro site is located on the east side of the lake. It is thought to be the remains of an Iron Age village that sank underwater. Archaeologists determined that the figurine dates back to the 9th or 10th century B.C.E., during the Early Iron Age.
The figurine is six inches long and has unfinished features. It also contains the handprint of whoever made it. Other imprints of a fabric pattern suggest that it was once clothed.
“The newly sketched figurine, even in female connotations, is made of freshly baked dough and still shows the marks of the fingerprints of the modeler and the imprint of a plot of fabric under the chest, a sign that it was probably supposed to be ‘dressed,'” stated researchers from the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for Southern Etruria.
The sculpture was likely associated with domestic rituals. Similar rituals and figurines have been recorded in later periods in the region, pointing to a long-standing tradition of creating votive figures. The discovery was referred to as “exceptional” since it reveals aspects of what daily life was like during the Early Iron Age.
Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, Lake Bolsena formed during eruptions of the underground Vulsini volcano. The volcano’s most recent eruption may have occurred a few centuries before the fall of Rome.
Seismic activity likely caused the lake’s eastern shore to sink, bringing the ancient village down with it. Today, the Italian government considers the volcano inactive.
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