Fingerprint analysis of 4,500-year-old pottery from the ancient Syrian town of Tel Hama has found evidence that child labor was used to make drinking vessels.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University and the National Museum in Copenhagen investigated 450 pottery vessels made at the peak of the Ebla Kingdom, located in the Levant. They found that some two-thirds of the drinking cups were crafted by children as young as seven years old.
Tests were conducted on fingerprints found on the vessels. Fingerprints remain unchanged throughout a person's life so the age and sex of the potters could be estimated from the size of the palm prints, as well as the density of the fingerprint ridges.
At its height, from 2,400 to 2000 BCE, the cities of the Ebla Kingdom began to rely on child labor to produce ceramics. The children were trained to create cups as uniformly as possible, which were then used in everyday life and at royal banquets.
"I think one of the most important this research emphasizes about ancient children is that it breaks down our division between innocent children who play no economic role and devote their time to learning, playing and exploring and children who are working in awful conditions in factories," said Dr. Akiva Sanders, a Dan David Fellow at Tel Aviv University who led the research.
"This research paints a picture of ancient children who are living both lives at once. With the rise of the Ebla Palace state, they are making mass-produced goblets for lavish banquets and at the same time they are playing and exploring with clay with their peers, making imaginative figurines and miniature vessels."
The demand for drinking cups was high, given they were often used during alcohol-fueled feasts, where they'd be broken and needed quick replacement.
The use of child labor in the ancient world mirrored what occurred centuries later during the Industrial Revolution in Europe and America, where children were also taught to perform repetitive, precise movements to standardize production.
"Drinking festivals were one of the social foundations of the Ebla Kingdom and other early states in the region," said Sanders.
"A big part of the royal schedule in the kingdom was to visit many different pilgrimage sites in the region and Hama was one of them. When the royal entourage came to a pilgrimage site, it was certainly a party.
"But such events were imitated by other people as well. Elite and even middle-class households would have also thrown drinking events with these goblets. It was an important way of tying people together at every level of society. The number of broken goblets we find in these contexts illustrate how raucous these events could get."
The fingerprint analysis also showed that boys and girls were equally involved in pottery making, with about one-third of vessels also made by adult males.
The pottery from Tel Hama, which was excavated in the 1930s and stored in Denmark's National Museum, has provided information about the technical skills of the young potters, and the social dynamics in that ancient society.
In Tel Hama, children around the ages of 12 and 13 initially dominated the ceramic industry, but as demand for more uniform pottery grew, particularly for royal banquets, the kingdom began to train younger children to meet the increased need for cups.
Beyond their assigned tasks, children created small figurines and miniature vessels that appear to have been created independent of adult involvement.
"These children taught each other to make tiny figurines and vessels, likely as an outlet for their creativity and imagination," said Sanders. "It seems that, despite the pressures of their labor, these young potters found ways to express themselves artistically."
Sanders, A. (2024). Child and Clay: Fingerprints of a Dual Engagement at Hama, Syria. Childhood in the Past. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17585716.2024.2380137
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