Do we have any, say, of the Framers’ fingerprints? Jefferson was a tinkerer/inventor of sorts. Franklin too. Could there be a container or other enclosed space where their fingerprints are likely to be? Have any ever been recovered? What about before that? Wouldn’t there be prints inside some of the tombs that have been unearthed after a couple thousand years? Do prints decay? Can you get prints off a mummy? Do any fingerprint collectors exist (outside of law enforcement)?
To be clear, are you drawing a distinction between fingerprint impressions (such as might be left in soft clay), visible prints (which might result from having paint, ink or other substances on the fingers) and latent prints (invisible prints consisting of skin oils and secretions?)
I’m not picky. Sattua pointed to probably the winner in the Oldest Fingerprint we can Use for later Identification category, but there are still plenty of categories – oldest Greek, Oldest American Historical Figure, Oldest Roman, etc… Imagine having a framed print of one of Lincoln’s prints.
Didn’t lots of Renaissance Painters and Old Masters use their thumbs and fingers to swirl paint around to create the desired effect on canvas? I’m pretty sure we know what Da Vinci’s thumbprint is, for example.
Lots of fingerprints on old cuneiform tablets. I have seen a cite that all of the letters of Hammurabi were written in the same hand. Some have conjectured that he scribed them himself. Which would mean that somewhere there might be a tablet with the old Lawguy’s fingerprint on it.
Fascinating. So cornflakes/da Vinci is the oldest (posted) identifiable fingerprint.
The 32K+ handprint is way out there, but wouldn’t the original interior print (i.e., not the outline) have been smudged away by eons of followers and gawkers? Or have some of the caves been found recently enough such that the wall would have remained untouched since neolithic times?
