Back home... Iron Age figure 'lost' for 21 years returns to Yorkshire

The Iron Age representation of a woman was sent to experts at the British Museum in 1989.

Staff at Hull Council's archaeology department assumed it had been returned and was somewhere in their stores.

Manager of Humber Archaeology Partnership Dave Evans decided recently to track it down and found it still at the British Museum. He said: "It's a joy to have her back."

The crude figure, which was found during excavations at North Cave, seems to have been fashioned on the end of a rectangular bar. Made out of local clay fired at a low temperature, it is around 2,100 years old.

Mr Evans said it may be associated with salt-making once carried out at North Cave, where it was discovered in 1986. He added: "She has clear breasts, a little face and her sides have been shaped to give her a waist in clay. She's more Twiggy than Jordan.

"Someone thought it might have been a Celtic Goddess and it was sent off with great excitement to the British Museum to a lady who at the time was writing definitive books and giving lectures on gods and goddesses and sexuality. But she came to no positive conclusions."