FUN FINGERPRINT FACTS: ANCIENT DAYS

FUN FINGERPRINT FACTS: Ancient Days

1. Fingerprints have been found on:

• ·       ancient Babylonian clay tablets, seals, and pottery.
• ·      the walls of Egyptian tombs
• ·      Minoan, Greek, and Chinese pottery
• ·      bricks and tiles from ancient Babylon and Rome.

2. Fingerprints were used as signatures in ancient Babylon.

3. Chinese officials pressed their fingerprints into the clay seals used to seal documents.

4. With the invention of paper in China, legal contracts had handprints inked on the documents.

5. Before 851 BC Chinese merchants used fingerprints to authenticate loans.

6. By 702 BC, Japan allowed divorce petitioners to "sign" their petitions with a fingerprint.

7. During the reign of Babylonian king Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC) law officials took the fingerprints of people arrested.

8. During China's Qin Dynasty officials took handprints, footprints and fingerprints as evidence from a crime scene.

9. Around 330 AD handprints were used as evidence in a trial for theft in China.