ABSTRACT
When humans began taking an interest in the strange patterns on their hands and fingers will never be known, but the presence of fingerprints on cave walls and on ancient artifacts has led some historians to believe that the individuality of fingerprints has been recognized for many centuries. In Gavrinis near Brittany, the Belgian scientist Stockis discovered Neolithic carvings on the walls of caves that resembled friction ridge detail. On the surfaces of granite slabs, circles similar to fingerprint patterns have been observed; similar patterns have been found in another Neolithic site in County Meath, Ireland. The origins of the markings are unknown but claims that the slabs reflect ancient observations of finger and palm impressions are not convincing. It is more than likely that the carvings merely depict patterns found in the natural world. The oldest acceptable representation of a hand and the strange patterns on the friction ridge skin is an aboriginal carving found on a slate discovered at the edge of Kejimkujik Lake, Nova Scotia. While the carving does not support evidence that the aboriginal carver had any knowledge of the individuality of fingerprints, it does show an awareness of the patterns on the fingers.
