Severed Hands Discovered in Ancient Egypt Palace

LiveScience ^ | August 10th, 2012 | Owen Jarus

[SunkenCiv]

A team of archaeologists excavating a palace in the ancient city of Avaris, in Egypt, has made a gruesome discovery.

The archaeologists have unearthed the skeletons of 16 human hands buried in four pits. Two of the pits, located in front of what is believed to be a throne room, hold one hand each. Two other pits, constructed at a slightly later time in an outer space of the palace, contain the 14 remaining hands.

They are all right hands; there are no lefts.

"Most of the hands are quite large and some of them are very large," Manfred Bietak, project and field director of the excavations, told LiveScience.

The finds, made in the Nile Delta northeast of Cairo, date back about 3,600 years to a time when the Hyksos... a location known today as Tell el-Daba. At the time the hands were buried, the palace was being used by one of the Hyksos rulers, King Khayan...

The hands appear to be the first physical evidence of a practice attested to in ancient Egyptian writing and art, in which a soldier would present the cut-off right hand of an enemy in exchange for gold... a practice undertaken by both the Hyksos and the Egyptians.

One account is written on the tomb wall of Ahmose, son of Ibana, an Egyptian fighting in a campaign against the Hyksos...

Scientists are not certain who started this gruesome tradition. No records of the practice have been found in the Hyksos' likely homeland of northern Canaan, Bietak said..

[SunkenCiv]

A severed right hand discovered in front of a Hyksos palace at Avaris (modern-day Tell el-Daba). It would have been chopped off and presented to the king (or a subordinate) in exchange for gold. This discovery is the first archaeological evidence of the practice. At the time they were buried, about 3,600 years ago, the palace was being used by King Khayan. The Hyksos were a people believed to be from northern Canaan, they controlled part of Egypt and made their capital at Avaris on the Nile Delta. CREDIT: Photo by Axel Krause

[Lazamataz]

Give 'em a hand!

[Kirkwood]

Vulcan?

[SunkenCiv]

This is one of *those* topics.

· join · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post new topic · subscribe ·

from the V archive:

• Avaris (location)
• Avaris (search)
• Hyksos (search)
• Manfred Bietak site:freerepublic.com (search)

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Renfield! To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[Oratam]

"Most of the hands are quite large and some of them are very large."

"There were giants in the earth in those days."

[Clinging Bitterly]

Fascinating.

[SunkenCiv]

And after the meal, they enjoyed a dessert of lady fingers.

[Track9]

So the enemy became a bunch of lefties. Seems things never change.

[SunkenCiv]

:’)

[little jeremiah]

Does “some of them were quite large” mean within the normal range or abnormal? I wish they’d give some dimensions.

[JoeProBono]

[Ditter]

Hands or scalps, the spoils of war. Not as creepy as shrunken heads.

[SunkenCiv]

• Biography of Ahmose, son of Abana
• Biography of Ahmose-pen-nekhbet

[SunkenCiv]

:’) Not too sure about that! :’D

[SunkenCiv]

If actually from the Hyksos era (iow, has the biological material been RC dated?), it will be interesting if the ethnicity of the hands will be IDed from genetic material.

[bgill]

There must have been a glut of hands as the market for them bottomed out.

[JimRed]

Perhaps from a later Muslim occupation?

[Sacajaweau]

From a different view point....Maybe they were thieves...I believe custom to cut off hands of a thief is still part of Arab/Muslim/etc law. Maybe this was a “prison” site....i.e., where they buried criminals.

[skinkinthegrass]

...who knew; the Addams' Family "THING" has familial relatives in the ancient times...*salute!*