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Researchers have found fingerprints and finger drag marks on plaster from Roman tombs. |Image credit: Seeing the Dead Project/University of York and York Museums Trust
About 1800 years ago in Rome Researchers reported in a recent blog post that people in the UK made a plaster-like paste and smeared it on bodies as they prepared them for burial, leaving fingerprints that are still visible today.
Archaeologists say the newly discovered prints reveal how funerary customs were practiced in the third and fourth centuries AD.
This research team, participated in “see the deadA project at the University of York has been investigating the mysterious practice of using liquid plaster to fill the stone and lead coffins of Yorkshire residents. roman empire.
Gypsum is a calcium-based mineral that was a key ingredient in ancient plaster and cement. When heated and mixed with water, plaster becomes a pourable liquid, sometimes called plaster of paris. This viscous liquid, when fell on the corpsehardens into plaster and leaves the shell or imprint of the deceased, much like Pompeii cast.
At least 45 liquid gypsum tombs So far it has been found in the Yorkshire area. While investigating one of the sarcophagi—one discovered in the 1870s that had never been properly studied before—the team found surprising clues about how the liquid plaster was applied: Someone applied it by hand.
“When we lifted up the case and started cleaning and 3D scanning, we found finger prints and were shocked,” Maureen CarrollA Roman archaeologist at the University of York and lead researcher on the Seeing the Dead project told LiveScience in an email. “They had never been seen before, and no one had ever removed the shell from the sarcophagus.”
Plaster sheet with fingerprints
Researchers found handprints in hardened plaster.
Plaster sheet with fingerprints
A close-up of the handprint showing individual fingers.
Plaster sheet with fingerprints
One shows how people in Roman times touched plaster.
Plaster sheet with fingerprints
3D scan of plaster showing fingerprints (orange) and drag marks (yellow).
December 10 blog postCarroll explained that the team had previously assumed that liquid plaster was heated to at least 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 degrees Celsius) and poured over the bodies. But the presence of fingerprints means the plaster mixture may have been a soft paste that someone smoothed over the body in the coffin. The plaster had been laid very close to the edge of the coffin, so the fingerprints were not visible until the team removed the shell from the coffin.
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Fingerprints and handprints revealed close contact between Romans and the dead, Carroll said. “They are telltale signs of human activity that would not have been present on corpses in a Roman funerary environment,” she wrote in the blog post.
These markers may hold additional clues about the person who buried the deceased, for example, revealing whether the person last exposed to the deceased was a professional undertaker or a family member.
“We want to tap into the potential DNA “Residues from the handprints will be examined at the Francis Crick Institute in London,” Carroll said. While unlikely, “the best-case scenario is that we might be able to infer genetic sex, which would be a huge result!”