Fingerprinting ancient pottery

FORENSIC ARCHAEOLOGY: What Fingerprints Tell Us About Jerusalem’s Ancient Artisans. In an unusual collaboration, archaeologists in Israel are working with police to analyze prints left on fifth- or sixth-century pottery shards (Hillel Kuttler, Smithsonian Magazine).

On a chilly, rainy afternoon in September 2020, two Israeli police cars and a motorcycle, their red lights flashing and sirens blaring, pulled up to an archaeological dig in Motza (or Moza), a neighborhood in the mountains west of Jerusalem.

Four police officials emerged from the vehicles and approached the excavation—but they weren’t responding to a crime. They’d come to examine ancient fingerprints as part of an unconventional, ongoing collaboration between Israel’s police department and the Tel Moza Expedition Project team.

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For more on the archaeology of the site of Tel Moza (Tel Motza, Tel Moẓa, Tel Moẓah), start here and follow the links.

Cross-file under Technology Watch.

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