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450 year old Fingerprints found from St. John’s Bahamas Wreck!

450 year old Fingerprints found from St. John’s Bahamas Wreck!

Corey Malcom

April 1999

One of the more startling discoveries ever made from a shipwreck comes from recent work in the MFMHS conservation laboratory on materials from the St. John’s Bahamas Wreck. From the beginning of the excavation of this mid-16th century ship, mysterious impressions have been found in the collection of ceramics. Six indented pieces are in the form of earthenware balls, or, probably more accurately, "blobs." The clay is of the same type used to manufacture the numerous olive jars that have been found on the wreck. In each of these is the clear impression of either a fingertip or thumb tip. Upon careful cleaning, in solutions designed to dissolve the coralline growth covering the ceramic, distinct fingerprint lines were found preserved in the clay. Instantly, upon their discovery, a powerful and direct connection was made between our staff and the people who, centuries before, left these most idiosyncratic of marks.

The discovery of these impressions was exciting enough, but what about positive images from these molds? If castings could be made from them, then essentially parts of these people, soft tissues, would be recreated. This is certainly well beyond the normal experience of those involved in shipwreck research. In consideration of the sensitivity of these pieces, a casting medium had to be found that would not harm the detailed impressions. Experts were consulted, and experiments conducted on less sensitive olive jar sherds. At first, a silicone rubber paste was utilized, but it proved too sticky. A thin layer of the ceramic surface adhered to it, and a stain was left on the remainder. Clearly, this would damage the prints and was unacceptable. A local forensics laboratory was visited, and there they provided a test of a high resolution molding compound, but it was difficult to apply evenly and also stained the ceramic.

The answer to our problem was provided by Dr. Warren Barbour of the State University of New York at Buffalo. Dr. Barbour has observed the phenomenon of "archaeological dermatoglyphs" in ceramics, and is familiar with their safe recovery. His suggestion of oil-based, polymer clay (brand name, "Sculpey") was implemented on the test subjects, and worked beautifully. It recovered the slightest details with no distortion, or damage to the ceramic. This type of clay is also baked during the molding process, and hardens permanently, making it sturdy and safe to handle.

The results from this casting project have been stunning. The cast, positive images look just like the tips of peoples’ fingers, and prints on them are clearly visible. Most importantly, they can now be examined in their original form. Multiple sets of these casts have been made. The first was sent to Dr. Barbour, who is building a database of fingerprints from archaeological sites around the world. He will work to analyze the prints for clues about the people who left them. For our staff, the trick now is to figure out why they left them. Certainly, after having found seeds, insect fragments, and now fingerprints, there is a tremendous degree of preservation potential to be found on ancient shipwrecks. One only has to be open to the unexpected.

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