5,000-year-old fingerprints found on Neolithic pottery reveals it was made by two young males dailymail.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from dailymail.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BBC News
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Archaeologists believe fingerprints left on a piece of Neolithic pottery belonged to two young men.
Further analysis identified two more prints, but only two of the three fingerprints had enough detail for archaeologists to study properly.
They think one was aged between 13 and 20 and the other 15 and 22.
How could archaeologists know the age and gender?
University of the Highlands and Islands Archaeology Institute said fingerprint components were known to differ according to age and sex.
It said the distance between ridges, for example, increased as an individual grew, while male ridges were usually broader.
The prints were examined by Prof Kent Fowler, director of the University of Manitoba s Ceramic Technology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Canada.