Saturday, January 11, 2020
More likely consequence
An interesting observation by archeologists. In villages built before surveying and compasses, newer houses tend to turn slightly counterclockwise from older houses. This tendency is constant enough that it can be used for dating the structures.
The authors propose a neurological explanation: a general tendency among right-handers to favor the left visual field. Seems unlikely in terms of rotating a house. When you're laying out a square foundation in a dense village, you'll try to keep things parallel to existing paths and roads. Favoring the left wouldn't change your view of parallelism. Without surveying tools you'll be off perpendicular, but the errors would balance.
Favoritism could influence our choice of placement for the house. This tendency does show up in how we build cities. Growth tends to turn counterclockwise from downtown. If growth starts pushing northward, it will turn toward the northwest. If it starts westward, it will turn toward the southwest. Start southward, turn toward southeast.
As the roads bend leftward, houses parallel to the roads will also necessarily turn leftward.
¶ 7:03 AM 
