Southampton archaeologists have unearthed more than 300 prehistoric figurines.

The team from the University of Southampton made the “extraordinary” find during work in Greece.

The clay figures were found at the site of Koutroulou Magoula and are believed to date back to the Middle Neolithic period – which was almost 8,000 years ago.

Experts say the figurines depict the community’s society and culture.

Project Co-Director Professor Yannis Hamilakis said: “Figurines were thought to typically depict the female form, but our find is not only extraordinary in terms of quantity, but also quite diverse – male, female and non-gender specific ones have been found and several depict a hybrid human-bird figure.

"We still have a lot of work to do studying the figurines, but they should be able to give us an enormous amount of information about how Neolithic people interpreted the human body, their own gender and social identity and experience.”