Fingerprints play a central role in any field where person identification is required. In forensics and biometrics, three-dimensional fingerprint-based imaging technologies, and corresponding recognition methods, have been vastly investigated. In cultural heritage, preliminary studies provide evidence that the three-dimensional impressions left on objects from the past (ancient fingerprints) are of paramount relevance to understand the socio-cultural systems of former societies, to possibly identify a single producer of multiple potteries, and to authenticate the artist of a sculpture. These findings suggest that the study of ancient fingerprints can be further investigated and open new avenues of research. However, the potential for capturing and analyzing ancient fingerprints is still largely unexplored in the context of cultural heritage research. In fact, most of the existing studies have focused on plane fingerprint representations and commercial software for image processing. Our aim is to outline the opportunities and challenges of digital fingerprint recognition in answering a range of questions in cultural heritage research. Therefore, we summarize the fingerprint-based imaging technologies, reconstruction methods, and analyses used in biometrics that could be beneficial to the study of ancient fingerprints in cultural heritage. In addition, we analyze the works conducted on ancient fingerprints from potteries and ceramic/fired clay sculptures. We conclude with a discussion on the open challenges and future works that could initiate novel strategies for ancient fingerprint acquisition, digitization, and processing within the cultural heritage community.

中文翻译：

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文化遗产三维指纹识别研究

指纹在需要人员识别的任何领域都发挥着核心作用。在取证和生物识别领域，基于三维指纹的成像技术和相应的识别方法已经得到了广泛的研究。在文化遗产方面，初步研究提供的证据表明，在过去的物体上留下的三维印象（古代指纹）对于了解前社会的社会文化系统、可能识别出多个陶器的单一生产者以及验证雕塑的艺术家。这些发现表明，可以进一步研究对古代指纹的研究，并开辟新的研究途径。然而，在文化遗产研究的背景下，捕获和分析古代指纹的潜力在很大程度上仍未得到探索。事实上，现有的大多数研究都集中在平面指纹表示和用于图像处理的商业软件上。我们的目标是概述数字指纹识别在回答文化遗产研究中的一系列问题时的机遇和挑战。因此，我们总结了生物识别中使用的基于指纹的成像技术、重建方法和分析，这可能有助于对文化遗产中古代指纹的研究。此外，我们分析了对陶器和陶瓷/烧制粘土雕塑的古代指纹进行的工作。