Aixa Vidal (UCM/INAPL)

What is lateralisation or handedness?

It is the tendency to use a specific hand to
perform activities. People are usually classified
as right-handed, left-handed, or ambidextrous.
Arguably, 2% to 30% of any human population is
left-handed or ambidextrous, with estimates
hovering around 10%, depending upon the
criteria used (1) and social acceptance.

How is handedness expressed in material

culture?
As people feel more comfortable with a
particular hand, they tend to produce
inefficient figures when the wrong hand is
used. If the society forces left-handers to
use the right hand (social preference for the
left-hand is unknown) their work would be
awkward, and can be easily confused with
an apprentices production.
The use of one hand or the other conditions
a favoured directionality in the drawings or
incisions. Thus, a left-hander typically makes
both horizontal and vertical lines in a rightleft direction, so the directionality can be
defined once the starting point is identified.

(a) Left- and (b) right-handers typical directionality (Numancia; Iron Age II)

Can it be identified in past materials?

Certainly. The favoured direction of a left- or
right-hander is quite evident in some
specimens. However, caution should be
exercised when making conclusions, as
directionality may have been conditioned by
either physical (e.g. placing the pot upsidedown) or symbolic factors (e.g. representing
the suns movement).
So far, the only attempts at identifying
handedness in pottery production we are
aware of were used to explain learning
flexibility (2) and communities of practice (3;
4) but no systematisation has been suggested.
It may also be a useful reference for the
definition of technological habitus acquisition
as well as past authorship and potters identity.

(a) Left- and (b) right-handers typical directionality (C. Higuern; Neolithic)

Upwards deviations in horizontal lines are

noted on the left, while the central axis of
vertical motifs is often rotated up to 20 also
to the left. The opposite situation is noted
for right-handed people. When making
circles, left-handers consistently go counterclockwise, particularly if a potters calliper is
used, as the rotation to the left would be
disturbed by their own body.
1. Holder, M. (1992) Hand Preference Questionnaires: One Gets What One Asks For. M.Ph
thesis, Department of Anthropology, Rutgers University.
2. Wallaert-Petre, H. (1999) Manual Laterality Apprenticeship as the First Learning Rule
Prescribed to Potters. Urgeschichtliche Materialheite 14: 185-206.
3. Sassaman, K. & W. Rudolphi (2001) Communities of Practice in the Early Pottery
Traditions of the American Southeast. Journal of Anthropological Research 57: 407-425.
4. Alday Ruiz, A. (ed.) (2009) Reflejos del Neoltico Ibrico. La cermica boquique:
caracteres, cronologa y contexto. Barcelona: EDAR, Arqueologa y Patrimonio.

Thanks to Irene Pedrosa, Nuria Egea and all the left-handers who participated,
especially to Juan Jess Padilla for the samples and suggestions.