Early Graphic Evidence of Dextrality in Man

Abstract

from Egypt. Certain Egyptian tombs contain wall decorations depicting workers engaged in various daily activities which are uni~nanual or in which che two hands are used unequally. In the main, these pictures represent slaves and servants who are performing services for che noble or wealthy man for whom a particular tomb was constructed. The analysis which follows is based upon published reproductions of che murals in Egyptian tombs. As the originals have in many instances undergone considerable damage or deterioration since chey were copied, at the present time the copies are the best source of data. The earliesc era from which paintings are available in numbers sufficient to warrant quantitative analysis is that of about 2500 B.C., the close of the eleventh and che beginning of the twelfth dynasty. The data come from the combs of Beni Hasan. Copies of line drawings were made under che auspice of the Egypt Exploration Fund of Great Bricain and were published between 1893-1900 ~~nder the editorship of F. L. Griffich (6). In this material we have recorded a figure as representing handedness if it shows a person performing a skilled act by means of one hand alone, or if it shows a bimanual act in which one hand is clearly performing the dominant or more difficult role. Thus if an archer's left hand holds the bow and the right hand the arrow, rhe picture is recorded as indicating dexcralicy. Similarly, a right-handed scribe is one who wrices wich his right hand, holding the writing material wich his left. We have excluded from our tabulations inscances of relatively unskilled unimanual acts, such as merely holding or carrying an object, and bimanual acts in which the two hands appear to be used equally, as in lifting a heavy object.* In the Beni Hasan pictures there are 120 usable inscances of hand pref'In seeking graphic evidence for the antiquity of right-handedness in man, attention is namrally first directed to the paintings and carvings on the walls of French and Spanish caves, which have been studied chiefly by Brueil and his collaborators. From the point of view of dextrality, these early works of art prove to be disappointing. When the human figure is depicted it is often shown in a posture not indicative of action. When action is represented, the human figure is usually shown with the fronto-dorsal surfaces parallel to the surface on which it is drawn but, because it is shown without facial features, one cannot tell whether the person is facing toward or away from the viewer. In consequence, it is not possible to distinguish with certimde between the right and the left hand. Because of the character of these representations, it is scarcely possible to analyze them for indications of the prevalent hand-preference at the time this cave art was produced. 'As the error involved in these judgements of which hand a person was using was felt to be very small, reliability was not estimated. Also, since the data are published, the study may be easily replicated.