Fingertip impressions preserved in the surface of clay artefacts can provide demographic details about the people who manufactured and decorated pottery vessels, and by extension allow exploration of the composition of communities of practice engaged in pottery manufacture. This paper describes the development of a method of measurement and analysis of fingertip impressions which were sometimes used as decorative motifs on pot surfaces. The technique can be applied to pottery from across archaeological periods; however, the research presented here focusses on communities of practice among Early and Middle Bronze Age potters of eastern England, and assessing their demographic make-up through analysis of fingertip impressions. The preserved fingertip impressions reveal potting communities comprised children and women, but adult men were seemingly excluded, and suggest a connection between craft activity, age and sex.

中文翻译：

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年轻的手在工作。用手指印象探索青铜器早期和中期陶器制作实践社区的人口构成

保存在粘土制品表面的指尖印象可以提供有关制造和装饰陶器的人的人口统计信息，并通过扩展来探索从事陶器制造的实践社区的组成。本文描述了一种测量和分析指尖印象的方法的发展，这些指尖印象有时被用作罐表面的装饰图案。该技术可以应用于各个考古时期的陶器；然而，这里介绍的研究侧重于英格兰东部青铜时代早期和中期陶艺家的实践社区，并通过分析指尖印象来评估他们的人口构成。保存下来的指尖印象揭示了由儿童和妇女组成的盆栽社区，