A recent preliminary study by Ph.D. student Leonie Hoff of the University of Oxford, published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, provides insight into how ancient fingerprints left on terracotta figurines reveal the age and sex of their makers.

This evidence of child involvement was found on Greek import and Egyptian figurines. Interestingly, children were found never to make figurines by themselves; those of older individuals always accompanied their fingerprints. Children were likely tasked with pressing the clay sheets into the molds, a task more suited to a child’s smaller hands.

Thereafter, the older supervising adult would remove the clay and fix the two halves; if not done correctly, this could ruin the figurine.