From Barrie Wells
In her piece about excavations in a Yorkshire churchyard, Georgina Ferry writes that archaeologists have produced even higher estimates of left-handedness than the most recent 13 per cent, recording 16 to 19 per cent rates in medieval skeletons (New Scientist, Science, 26 August).
Castles built in this period took advantage of the dominance of right-handedness for their defence, through the design of spiral staircases. The defenders may be assumed to be the ones further up the staircase. It is easier for a right-handed person to wield a sword from above if the staircase descends counterclockwise as viewed from above. This design was therefore adopted to put the attackers at a disadvantage.
However, castles with five or more spiral staircases often have one constructed in the opposite direction. Presumably it was accepted that 20 per cent was around the break-even point, that there would be about this many left-handers defending the castle.
It is presumably at least partially due to evidence of this kind that it has long been believed that the level of left-handedness will approximate to 20 per cent once social pressures have been removed. However, I would be interested to know whether the study of a single churchyard (at Wharram Percy in Yorkshire) significantly adds to this belief.
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Left-handedness is sometimes said to run in families. If there is indeed a genetic effect, does a single churchyard at a time of limited travel and intermixing represent a realistic sample?
