The 3cm head, crudely carved with eyes, nose and mouth and wavy hair, was found with a miniature set of terracotta cooking pots in the remains of two huts on the site of a fortified bronze age village at Mursia.

"We believe both the saucepans and the head were toys belonging to the girls who lived in this village around 4,000 years ago," said Fabrizio Nicoletti, of the University of Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, the archaeologist overseeing the dig.

"We wondered whether the head might be a religious symbol. But we have ruled that out because of the location in which the 'toys' were found [in children's living quarters]."

Pantelleria is thought to have been inhabited by African tribes who came in search of its abundant obsidian, a dark glassy volcanic rock prized for making tools and weapons.

The island, known as the Black Pearl of the Sun, was invaded by the Romans in 217BC, and by Arab forces five centuries later.