Charlotte Booth's 2018 PhD thesis states the epigraphic squeeze technique predates Lepsius by roughly 150 years in Mediterranean epigraphy, and that Lepsius spent four years touring European collections learning it before leading the 1842–45 Egypt expedition

epigraphyarchaeologyegyptologykarl-richard-lepsiussqueeze-methodhistoriography

Charlotte Booth's 2018 PhD thesis discusses a 29-sheet series of Greek/Roman-inscription squeezes held at the Danish Royal Library, tied to the antiquarian circle of Rafaello Fabretti, Cassiano dal Pozzo, and Carlo Dal Pozzo, and acquired in 1699 — roughly a century and a half before Lepsius's 1842–45 Egypt expedition. Booth's own conclusion: "This early history of Mediterranean squeezes is outside the scope of this research, but in this context it is enough to be aware that Egyptology as a discipline was not a pioneer of this recording method which could be a reflection of the later date of exploration into Egypt as opposed to Europe." The thesis also quotes Peter France's The Rape of Egypt (1991) on how Lepsius acquired the skill: "Lepsius had spent four years touring the Egyptian collections in England, France, Holland, and Italy learning the art of making squeezes and tracings of inscriptions."

Together, these narrow "founding practitioner" to a precise scope: Lepsius is the figure Egyptological literature credits as the starting point for large-scale, systematic squeeze documentation within Egyptology (see claim-egyptological-squeeze-literature-treats-lepsius-as-starting-point) — not the inventor of the squeeze technique, which he learned from an existing European tradition before applying it at expedition scale. This is the correction recorded against the earlier claim-note; see its Correction history for the full resolution.