| Show 44 PRINTS ABOUT OLD AS FINGERS proofs of their wide use in old palestine of 0 course it Is generally known in this day of wide use of fingerprints for purposes of identification that that merry old missourian marls mark twain did not in truth invent the fingerprint for the use he made of it as an interesting point in detailing the tragedy of wilson and less generally known Is that the fingerprint sweeps back to its ute on official documents in a china several centuries ago cut but it was known only recently and then by very few persons that the fingerprint was employed in palestine and possibly with purpose as long ago as six to a dozen centuries before christ dr william F bade professor of semitic literature and languages in the pacific school of religion in his bis capacity as director of the palestine institute of the tell en nasbah expedition studying pottery and bits of earthenware recovered by searchers from a 12 acre mound near jerusalem in the last four years has recognized a pattern of fingerprints running through many of the specimens that indicates that they were used then almost as we use trademarks in the twentieth century prof august vollmer former police chief in berkeley who Is now teaching police administration to in the pacific school aided doctor bade in the study turning his knowledge of fingerprints fing ger prInts and their distinctive characteristics to good account in classifying the groups of relies relics according to their makers the knowledge thus gained has a practical value in determining periods As the specimens were obtained at varying levels of the foot mound it was not illogical to believe that the different levels represented different periods of history with a spread possibly of several centuries but identification of a number of jars found at different levels of the mound bearing the same prints indicates that the theory of hundreds of years separating the levels must be revised to suit the evidence several pottery vases in the collection have been identified as belonging to the period when the israelites were carried oft off into exile in Habyl onla on the larger two han died jars the prints were regularly on the upper parts of the handles and give support to the belief that they were intended to serve as the potters trademark the smaller jars are marked indiscriminately and may have been nothing more than chance marks made in shaping the clay when it was soft true enough these fingerprints fingerprint may not have the clearness and the identification certainty that the records of modern prints bear but the clay recorded impressions are sufficient chent to give new cew value to leal research st SL louis globe dem |
