[The profile direction toward right and left as seen from a historical study of cultural development. A dominance problem (author's transl)].

Eighty percent of right handers drawing a human profile, direct it towards the left. The neurophysiological basis for this fact and the dominant role that the right hemisphere plays in higher visual performances is discussed. The preference for the left profile direction is traced back to the early Greek period in paintings, drawings, coin portraits, gems, cameos, and vase portraits. Fifty thousand objects have been analyzed. A 60% prevalence of face direction towards the right occurs in the cultural centers of the Mediterranean before 600 B.C. Before the early Greek period: the Assyrian, Egyptian, and Sumerian cultures faced more profiles to the right. This tendency for right profile direction can be traced back to Stone Age cave drawings. The profile shift from right to left occurs in the early Greek period and is related to a shift in script and in letter profile at the same time. This profile shift occurs simultaneously with an acceleration of intellectual and cultural development which also influenced our present culture. Although the percentage of right handers might not have changed considerably since the Stone Age, the profile shift from right to left suggests a hypothetical change in dominance of the cerebral hemispheres for the higher visual perception which may have induced a left preference in the period around 600 B.C.