A Roman altar gifted to Italian dictator Mussolini may be returned to Maryport.

Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the Senhouse Roman Museum which holds the largest single-site collection of Roman altars from anywhere in Britain.

The collection is of international importance. One altar resides in the British museum and a second was given to Benito Mussolini either as a gift or a loan.

Archaeologist Professor Ian Haynes and Dr David Breeze, former chairman of the Senhouse Museum Trust have both been negotiating for the return of the altar.

Professor Haynes said: "We are getting good cooperation but these matters are always delicate."

The altar has been traced to the Museum of Civilisation in Rome.

The museum is closed and, while there were indications that it would open at the end of last year after renovations this has not yet happened, however.

Another former Senhouse trustee Lindsay Allason-Jones, a British archaeologist and museum professional specialising in Roman material, said the altar was a fine specimen and it would be good to have it back in Maryport.

"The negotiators are working hard," she said.

Meanwhile, studies or artefacts found during the last Newcastle University dig on the Roman for in Maryport has revealed that there was settlement here 2,000 years before the Romans arrived, showing that Maryport was settled in the Neolithic age, just after the Stone Age.

N exciting new discovery has shown that people may have settled in Maryport at the beginning of the Bronze Age, 2,000 years before the Romans.

Experts have described the finds as rare and important, giving a glimpse of the earliest settlers in Cumbria.

Fragments of corded ware pottery found during the last Newcastle University dig at the Roman fort near the Senhouse museum have now been analysed.

Professor Ian Haynes, who ran the dig with Historic England archaeologist Tony Wilmott, said the analysis confirmed that the fragments, weighing almost four pounds, had come from a single pit which appeared to indicate that they were derived from domestic activity.

It appears to show that, at a time when people were just beginning to settle and grow food, the highest point of Maryport could have been one of those settlements.

The pottery comes from the so-called “Beaker” culture, an archaeological culture named after the inverted-bell beaker drinking vessel used at the very beginning of the Bronze Age.

Alex Gibson, author and expert on prehistoric pottery said: “This small but important assemblage from Maryport offers a rare and tantalising glimpse of potentially early Beaker civilisation in Cumbria.”

He added that this was an area where Beakers of all types were “scarce indeed.”

As the Senhouse Roman Museum begins the build-up to a 30th anniversary year in 2020, the Beaker find has given the small but critically important museum a lift - and there is more to come.

Professor Haynes said by next April more information would be finalised about what they believe was a large temple found during the digs.