My own no-basis 30 second gun theory - what if they are all the same way because one guy who was really good at making them passed the knowledge down that way. Then everyone else followed from that one teaching and never bothered flipping it. It wasn’t better, it just won the coin flip
You can go a step further and (maybe, I acknowledge this is a stretch) apply some evolutionary pressure in that it gave defensive advantages they didn't think about and so the people whose castles this guy/his students built retained their wealth and built more castles from the same building style.
I recall an interview with someone doing a late night talk show, that they tried putting the guest on the right side of the host but that didn't sit to well with audiences because they were used to seeing the guest on the left side. No reason for it other than that is what the first popular late show did, so everything else followed.
I like this, and the comment you replied to. I think most of the things we have are the way they are because of reasons like these, not because someone rationally planned them.
I thought the current thinking was that no battle would ever come down to fighting on the stairway. If someone has already made it through all of your castle's defences to even be on the stairs, then the battle is over.
I'm supporting the idea that a spear is superior in any defensive position by pointing out that the problem with an offensive block of spears is the need to move, which doesn't apply to defense.
That’s why you surrender after you realize the situation is hopeless (which is hopefully long before anyone starts climbing up the stairs).
Even if you’re willing to fight to the death/don’t have a choice which was pretty rare and are just stuck at the top what incentives do the attackers have to risk their lives by rushing up the stairs when they can just start a fire at the bottom and/or wait you out?
Wouldn’t you need the relevant event to not be extremely rare for that to matter?
I mean a sieges were once in a several decades or even once in 100-200 years events on average. Actual direct assaults with combat occurring on the stairs were significantly less frequent than that. The defender being able to turn the tide at that point? Even less.
My own guess - there’s already a bias towards right handedness. I assume that is related. I don’t know how these staircases were built but it may be that it’s slightly easier to build these staircases for right-handed people. And then maybe 30% of builders were left handed or some minority of the time the architect wanted to prioritize symmetry with another tower.
