It may be observed that left-handedness is thought to have been very prevalent in early times, both in the Old World[1] and the New.[2] Certainly this plate strapped upon the arm is curiously similar in character to the bracer in use in England in later times, which, though sometimes of other materials, consisted, according to Paulus Jovius,[3] of a bone tablet. A bracer of carved ivory, of the sixteenth century, is in the Meyrick Collection,[4] and Mr. C. J. Longman has a collection of them, many artistically engraved, dating from the 16th and 17th centuries. Among the archers of ancient Egypt,[5] we find that similar guards were in use for the left arm. These were not only fastened round the wrist, but secured by a thong tied above the elbow. The material of which they were formed appears to be unknown. On a Roman monument[6] found in the North of England, a soldier is represented with a bow in his hand, and a bracer on his left arm. The Eskimos[7] of the present day also make use of a guard to save the wrist from the recoil of the bow-string. It is usually composed of three pieces of bone, about 4 inches in length, but sometimes of one only, and is fastened to the wrist by a bone button and loop. An ivory guard, attached by a strap and buckle to the arm, is still worn in India. Whatever was the purpose of those in stone they seem to belong to the latter part of the Stone Period, and to have continued in use in that of Bronze.
These bracers have occasionally been found in Denmark. One of red stone, 4 inches long, and with four holes, was found in a dolmen near Assens. It is ornamented with parallel lines along the ends, and part of the way along the sides. Another, 3 inches long, from a dolmen in Langeland, is of bone, with but two holes, and is ornamented with cross bands of zigzag lines. Both are engraved in the "Guide illustré du Musée des Antiquités du Nord."[8] What appears to be one of bone, found in a barrow in Denmark,[9] with two skeletons, but with no other objects, has also been engraved. A second was found under similar circumstances.
- ↑ Mortillet, Bull. Soc. Anth. de Paris, 3 July, 1890.
- ↑ Dr. D. G. Brinton, Amer. Anthrop., vol. ix. (1896), p. 175. Sir Daniel Wilson, "Lefthandedness," 1891. Mr. O. T. Mason reduces the proportion to 3 per cent. only. Amer. Anthrop., vol. ix. (1896) p. 226.
- ↑ "Desc. Angl.," ap. Bale, Ed. Oporin, vol. ii. p. 21.
- ↑ Skelton's "Meyrick's Armour," pl. xxxiv.
- ↑ Wilkinson's "Anc. Eg.," vol. i. p. 306.
- ↑ Bruce, "Roman Wall," 3rd ed., p. 97.
- ↑ Wood, "Nat. Hist. of Man," vol. ii. p. 710.
- ↑ 2nd ed., 1870, p. 7. Aarbög. for Nord. Oldk., 1868, p. 100.
- ↑ Ann. for Nord. Oldk., 1840-1, p. 166. Madsen, "Afbild.," pl. xxv. 16.
