Stamped hand prints,
Cave of 100 Hands,
Fremont Indian State Park,
Sevier County, UT. Photo
Peter Faris, 28 May 1992.
When I was
going through US Army Basic Training in 1965 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri,
the new trainees were classified as being either "right-handed" or
"wrong-handed". This was because our rifle of issue was the M-14, and
the ejection port for the fired empty cartridge was placed in a location that a
left or wrong-handed shooter would sometimes get hit in the nose with an
ejected, very hot, empty cartridge. Indeed, "A
study at Durham University - found that left-handed men were almost twice as
likely to die in war as their right-handed contemporaries. The study theorized
that this was because weapons and other equipment (were) designed for the
right-handed." (Wikipedia) I mention this as an introduction to the
question of handedness in rock art. Does the dominant hand leave any clues in
the image being created, does it make any difference in the art itself?
Lower-left to upper-right slant,
Picketwire Canyonlands,
Las Animas county, CO. Tracing
by James Keyser and Mark Mitchell,
Photograph Peter Faris.
The basic
motions used in the creation of rock art are; Flexion (bringing two body parts
closer together, such as the forearm and upper arm), and Extension (increasing
the space between two body parts as in straightening the elbow), as well as
rotation of the arm and hand. These would cover the production of most examples
of rock art. The natural easiest motion of the arm would arc between upper left
to lower right and back for the left arm, and from upper right to lower left
and back for the right arm. Thus, there might be clues in the orientation of
images or the axis in a rock art panel caused by this fact. By axis of the rock
art panel I refer to the center line of a unified composition. If individual
images are added to the rock face at different times (a newspaper rock for
instance) then this would not apply, but if the artist created an overall
composition of many elements then the axis (center line) might slope to follow
this arc of convenient arm motion. If not the center axis of the panel perhaps
a slant to many of the elements of the panel might indicate that same thing.
For instance: in 5LA8464, the Box Canyon site in Picketwire Canyonlands, Las
Animas county, Colorado, recorded in September 1999 by a crew led by Dr. James
D. Keyser and Dr. Mark Mitchell, a large elk and three of the four largest
horses in the composition angle upward from lower left to upper right. This
would be the natural arc of motion for a right-handed artist.
Upper-left to lower-right slant.
Keyser and Minick, 2018,
Horse Raiders in the Missouri Breaks:
Eagle Creek Canyon Petroglyphs,
Fig. 17, p. 26.
An example
that might suggest a left-handed artist is a panel from Montana (illustrated in
Horse Raiders of the Missouri Breaks
by Keyser and Minick) which includes three equestrian figures, all of which
display an upper left to lower right slant. This question of orientation of
figures, or panels, providing clues to handedness is probably too weak to base
assumptions on by itself, but when found with other clues can, perhaps, be
considered a reinforcing argument.
Horse legs, Gargas Cave,
France, www.donsmaps.com.
According
to Bahn and Vertut there are also clues to handedness that can be found in the
preferred lighting of rock art panels. "In
most cases, fine engravings are almost invisible when lit from the front, but
'leap out' when lit from the side. This fact is of some importance, for it
provides an indication of whether the artist was right- or left-handed.
Right-handed artists tend to have their light source on the left, to prevent
the shadow of their hand falling on the burin (or brush), and accordingly the
majority of Palaeolithic parietal engravings are best lit from the left (in
portable engravings, too, the proportion of right- and left-handers is similar
to that of today). Occasionally, however, one comes across the work of a southpaw
- for example, the Pyrenean cave of Gargas has many engravings including a
fine, detailed pair of front legs of a horse; these had been known and admired
for decades; but one day, when visiting scholars lit the figure from the right
instead of the left, they were suddenly confronted with the rest of the horse,
which nobody had seen before! It is possible, of course, that Palaeolithic
artists used the lighting of engravings to their advantage, making them appear
or disappear to great effect - alas, we shall never know." (Bahn and
Vertut 1997:108)
Sprayed handprints, internet
photo, public domain.
Also, if
one hand is used in handling pigments or tools used to create rock art, we can
assume it to have been the dominant hand. If this is the case then we may be
able to make assumptions on handedness from the handprints that are so common
in rock art. If the print is a direct stamping,
i.e. pigment applied to the hand and then stamped on the rock surface,
then it was probably made with the dominant hand. If it is a patterned stamped
handprint, then the paint was probably applied with the dominant hand to the
other hand which was then stamped on the rock. An outlined handprint, I will
assume, is made by using the dominant hand to draw around the other hand held
to the rock surface. An orally-sprayed handprint could well have been made with
either hand.
Gower Cave rock art, Swansea,
South Wales, Britain.
Dr. George Nash.
www.heritagedaily.com
Another
example of evidence of "handedness" in rock art is illustrated by the
discovery of a reindeer wall engraving in a cave in South Wales in Britain by
Dr. George Nash from the University of Bristol. "Dr. Nash discovered the faint scratchings of a speared reindeer
while visiting the Gower Peninsula caves near Swansea in September 2010. - This
drawing appears to have (been) engraved by an artist using his or her right
hand as the panel on which it is carved is located in a very tight niche."
(Heritage Daily 2011) So the handedness of this artist can be deduced by the
location of the image itself. In this case it must have been on the left wall
of a narrow niche so that only the right hand could conveniently access it.
So, does
any of this matter? Who cares whether the people producing rock art were right
or left-handed? Well, aside from anthropologists who love this sort of thing,
it provides us with tangible evidence that the people who produced the rock art
were pretty much just like us. And, that being the case, perhaps we can more
appreciate their thoughts and beliefs.
NOTE:
Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for
public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public
domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner
will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should
read the original reports at the sites listed below.
REFERENCES:
Bahn, Paul
G., and Jean Vertut,
1997 Journey
Through The Ice Age, University of California Press, Los Angeles.
Heritage Daily,
2011 Archaeologist's
Chance Discovery May Be Britain's Earliest Example of Rock Art, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2011/08/archaeologist%e2%80%99s-chance-discovery-may-be-britains-earliest-example-of-rock-art/7067
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handedness
Keyser,
James D., and David L. Minick
2018 Horse
Raiders in the Missouri Breaks: Eagle Creek Canyon Petroglyphs, Montana,
Publication #25, Oregon Archaeological Society, Portland.
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