Being left-handed in everyday life can sometimes seem a bit of a chore. While in archaeology, where trowel wear and tear is almost as important as whether there’s enough milk at break for everyone’s tea; it can be infuriating. At this company I know of at least 4 left-handed individuals or southpaws as we are known in the USA. We are the rebels not conforming to the right-handed world view (or so I like to think).

The red-handled trowel is a righty and the wooden-handled trowel is ambidextrous

While being left-handed can be a lovely way to show your individuality (we account for only 10% of the population don’t you know) it can also be a sure fire way to make you feel like an utter failure as a human being. Case and point: tin openers and scissors. Specifically in archaeology being left-handed only affects you when you want to write anything in a notebook as all the best ones are ring-binders (a conspiracy I’m sure). The only way that I can describe this to non-lefties is like trying to write when the tip of your pen is a positive magnet and the paper is also positive. No matter how hard you push that pen it will walk on air for some time before it writes on the paper. Forcing your hand into a strange contortion that makes your already stereotypically bad hand-writing even more illegible.

You may be thinking that we do not HAVE to be buying ring-binder notebooks. This is absolutely correct, however, it solves nothing as all site folders (these contain all the recording paperwork) are ALL ring-binders. As a result I dread that moment when the context list reaches those monstrous metal rings.

As mentioned in the beginning of the blog trowel wear can prove your prowess as an archaeologist on site. Wearing down that first trowel to a pinpoint of useless metal in some circles is a rite of passage. As the trowel wears usually on the side opposite to the handedness of the individual, forgetting your trowel can be a test in patience and tidy trowelling. Thankfully most archaeologists I know are reasonably ambidextrous with their trowels. These are the days that we can masquerade as the 90%.

But don’t despair as left-handers we are considered the more creative of the bunch and have the advantage in any bat/racket-based sports. Being left-handed may have given Neanderthals and humans throughout prehistory an advantage in hand to hand combat. A study looking at tooth marks in Neanderthals conducted by the University of Kansas in 2012 indicate that the majority may have also been right handed, with a small percentage also showing signs of left-handedness (Lozano et al. 2012). We also apparently thrive in violent societies (Faurie et al. 2005). Before the advent of high-powered long range weapons, left-handers had the advantage of the element of surprise in hand to hand combat as most opponents would not be used to facing a left-handed opponent

Another advantage in being left handed is a better ability to multitask and we have a better visual-brain than a language-brain. Making us ideal for drawing (although I wouldn’t check my artefact drawings). It also appears that we are a constant in human history, left-handers will be around for as long as there are right-handers. So please don’t by the right-handed scissors when you know you might have to share, and no more ring binder if you can avoid it. On this final note a Happy International Left Handed Day! I hope this has helped those that do not know us of the 10% understand why being left-handed is rather wonderful (most of the time).

Frayer, D.W, Lozano, M, Bermúdez de Castro, J. M, Carbonell, E. Arsuaga, J. L, Radovčić, J, Fiore, I. & Bondioli, L. 2012. More than 500,000 years of right-handedness in Europeans. Laterality Vol 17 (1) 51-69
Faurie, C. & Raymond, M. 2005. Handedness, homicide and negative frequency-dependant selection. Proceedings of the Royal Society Vol 272 (1558)