>
Severed human hands found in Egypt may belong to enemy warriors captured some 3,500 years ago, a gruesome new study shows.
Twelve hands were found in the Hyksos Palace in the ancient city of Avaris in northern Egypt, the former territory of the ancient Hyksos people and now an archaeological site.
Researchers in Germany believe the appendages likely dissected from the right arms of 11 adult males and one female — possibly when they were alive.
They refer to a gruesome ceremony performed at the palace by order of the royal members of the dynasty.
It is possible that they belonged to enemy warriors who were captured before having their hands cut off and thrown into pits for public display.
Archaeologists have discovered 12 severed hands in an Egyptian palace after 3,500 years. The hand bones are “soft and brittle and very difficult to excavate,” researchers say in their paper
It is unclear whether the hands of dead or living persons were taken. It is possible that the unfortunate victims were alive at the time and died shortly after their limbs were mutilated
Taking an enemy’s hand became a traditional practice in warfare in the dynasties that followed Hyksos, according to iconographic records, but this is the first physical evidence of the practice.
The finds were analyzed by a team of German and Austrian researchers led by Julia Gresky of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin.
While this type of practice is known from funerary or temple inscriptions and reliefs from the New Kingdom onwards, this is the first time that physical evidence has been used to learn more about the procedure and the persons whose hands were taken. them in their paper.
“Here we show that the right hand belonged to at least 12 adults, 11 males and possibly one female.
“It is unclear whether the hands were taken from dead or living individuals.”
The finds date back to the time of Egypt’s Hyksos dynasty – a powerful dynasty of Palestinian origin that ruled from the city of Avaris in the Nile Delta from about 1630 to 1523 BC.
They were found in the forecourt of the Hyksos Palace, a royal building in Avaris from which the kings of Hyksos reigned that dates back to 1640 BC.
The team said the hands were found in three separate pits in what would have been the entrance to the palace, directly in front of the throne room.
This particular placement suggests that they were ‘meant to be seen’ and may have acted as a gruesome warning to palace visitors.
The team said the hands were found in three separate pits in what would have been the entrance to the palace, directly in front of the throne room. Here, yellow marks the location of the found hands placed on their dorsal surface (with palms facing up) while red marks those found the other way
They were found in the forecourt of the Hyksos Palace in the ancient city of Avaris in northeastern Egypt, former territory of the Hyksos dynasty and now an archaeological site
Artist’s impression of Avaris, a former city and capital of Hyksos in Egypt. Avaris was located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab’a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta
Because the hands were not all fully intact and there were some lone flingers, the actual number of casualties is unclear.
The team had to estimate a minimum and maximum number of people that made up the collection of remains.
They concluded that 12 was the minimum number, while 18 was the maximum.
Determining the sex and age of death of the individuals was challenging because hands don’t have the same kind of anatomical clues as other parts of the body, such as the pelvis or skull.
However, the researchers offered a minimum age at the time of dismemberment of somewhere between 14 and 21, as the bones were fully formed and post-adolescent.
Because there were no signs of age-related degeneration, the highest age range was estimated to be less than 60 years.
Because male index fingers are longer than their ring fingers compared to females, 11 of the hands were determined to be male.
However, it could not be ruled out that the twelfth hand belonged to a woman.
Severed hands offered at the “honour gold” ceremony belonged to enemies, mostly male individuals of fighting age, killed in battle, the experts say in their paper.
‘At the same time, the presence of a female individual argues for a less gender-rigid approach to the reconstruction of this procedure.’
The hands were uncovered from the forecourt of Hyksos Palace, a former palace dating from sometime between 1640 and 1530 BC
Researchers point out that it is “unclear whether the hands were taken from dead or living individuals,” though they must have been “soft and flexible when placed in the pit,” before the rigor mortis began or after it ended.
The most likely scenario is that they were placed in the den sometime between 24 and 48 hours after they were removed from the rest of the body.
Another interesting feature is the lack of any sign of the forearms to which the hands were once attached.
This indicates that a degree of care was taken to remove any sign of the appendage so that only the anatomical hands would be seen.
However, it is impossible to tell whether the hands were neatly removed from the arms or cleaned up after a messy removal procedure.
While the hands cannot be attributed to a specific ethnic or cultural group, the study has been published in Scientific Reportssuggests that the cutting off of enemy hands may have originated in the communities from which the Hyksos leadership came.
Iconographic evidence of severed hands: inscription in the tomb of Ahmose at El-Kab depicting a highly realistic representation of an outstretched palm
The Hyksos ruled Northern Egypt as the 15th Dynasty from about 1630 to 1523 BC. – although they did not control all of Egypt.
Instead, they co-existed with the 16th and 17th Dynasties, who were based in Thebes, another ancient Egyptian city further south.
Warfare between the Hyksos and the pharaohs of the late 17th Dynasty finally culminated in the defeat of the Hyksos at the hands of Ahmose I, founder of the 18th Dynasty, who continued the practice of cutting off the enemy’s hands.
Tomb inscriptions from the early 18th Dynasty and temple reliefs from the 18th to 20th Dynasties consistently show the number of hands on the battlefield after major battles.