Researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and
Pennsylvania State have answered an anthropological puzzle. Why are the right
arms of Neanderthals so much more muscular than their left arms? They obviously
used their right arms more heavily than their lefts, but for what tasks? Two
leading contenders include thrusting spears and scraping hides.
To compare these two activities, thirteen right-handed
able-bodied men were set some spearing and scraping tasks. Pieces of carpet
stood in for game animals. The volunteers thrust mock spears into scraps of
carpet and scraped fibers from other carpet fragments, all while hooked up to
electrodes that measured muscle usage.
Spear thrusting seems like an obvious choose for
asymmetrical arm use. Unfortunately for this popular hypothesis, the
researchers found that this activity makes greater use of the non-dominant
(generally left) arm. So, scratch that off the list. In contrast, some of the
motions involved in scraping a hide did significantly favor the right arm.
This actually makes sense if you consider that for every
successful spear thrust there follows many hours of hide scraping. Thus, it’s
not surprising that hide preparation makes a much greater impact on
Neanderthals’ anatomy.
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