Ancestors leave their fingerprints on history of town

Prehistoric fingerprints preserved in clay are among the exhibits at the new Eastbourne Ancestors display which opened on February 1.

prehistoric fingerprints preserved in clay.

The exhibition, which is proving a real hit with visitors, highlights some fascinating stories from Eastbourne’s past – including the fingerprints, which have been studied and photographed by police Scenes of Crime Officers.

In prehistory, (taken to be prior to the Roman Invasion of 43AD) most pottery was hand made using coils or slabs of clay placed together and moulded into shape by hand.

During this process, the ancient potter quite often left fingerprints on the wet clay, both accidently and on purpose as part of a decorative scheme.

The wet clay was then fired and turned into pottery, preserving the fingerprints for, sometimes, thousands of years.

The Eastbourne Ancestors exhibition has three such pieces of pottery; two from the Bronze Age era from around 900BC and one from Neolithic times, around 5000 years ago. [...] eastbourneherald.co.uk