In 1889, an elaborate small clay figurine depicting a human was found in Nampa, Idaho (Fig. 6.4). The figurine was recovered while drilling a well from a depth of 300 feet (90 meters).
Here is what GFWright wrote in 1912: “According to the progress report, before reaching the stratum in which the figurine was found, the drillers went through about fifteen feet of soil, then about the same thickness of basalt, and then - several alternating layers of clay and quicksand …
When the well was about three hundred feet deep, the sand pump was pumping out a lot of clay balls covered with a dense layer of iron oxide; some were no more than two inches (5 cm) in diameter. At the bottom of this layer, signs of an underground soil layer with a small amount of humus appeared. It was from this depth of three hundred twenty feet (97.5 meters) that the figurine was recovered. A few feet below, there was already sandy rock.
Here's how Wright describes the statuette:
“It was made of the same substance as the aforementioned balls of clay, about an inch and a half (3.8 cm) high, and depicted a human figure with amazing perfection … The figure was clearly feminine, and its forms where the work was completed, would do honor to the most famous masters of classical art.
A figurine recovered from a well in Nampa, Idaho, dates from the Plio-Pleistocene era, i.e. it is about 2 million years old."