At the underwater archaeological site of Gran Caro di Bolsena in Aiola, Italy, divers have found an ancient clay figurine estimated to date back to the 9th or 10th century BC.

The object with a ritualistic appearance was discovered in a residential area of ​​a sunken city.

Experts hope the rudimentary statuette will give archaeologists a better explanation of Italian life in the Iron Age.

The unfinished clay figure of a woman looks more like a first draft than a finished work of art.

But just because the sculptor didn't completely finish the figurine doesn't mean there aren't plenty of clues available to show how it fits into Iron Age Italian life.

The feminine-looking, palm-sized statuette is so fresh that it "still shows traces of the fingerprints" of its maker, the Superintendent of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, part of Italy's Ministry of Culture, said in a statement.

The legacy and the impression of a piece of cloth under the chest provide the best indication that the figure was probably "clothed" at one point.

Heritage experts say the figure resembles something you would normally find in burial ceremonies, but divers working at the site found the statuette in what was once a residential building.

The Underwater Archeology Service team gets credit for the discovery, but the preservation of the find and its return to the surface came thanks to an Italian cultural property restoration team working with government divers.

The volcano-rich area has a little-known history. The divers helped start piecing together that history, which wasn't really on the archaeological radar until 1991 when researchers showed that the piles of shapeless stones that make up Aiola were linked to the presence of hot thermal water springs and that wooden pillars and ceramic fragments on the southwest side on the lake are tied to the Early Iron Age.