Posted on 08/12/2012 6:57:33 AM PDT by 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..
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
"Cross my palm ... with palm!"
The original Digital Age.
Screwed up manufacturing as well.
The gold came from the prints.
There was no Muzzie-era occupation of the site; also, the surviving texts speak of the practice of getting money for the severed right hand of a dead enemy. And in practice, if the enemy were not dead, cutting off the right hand would probably do it.
It started when Uncle Fester farted.
My first thought too. It would be interesting if they could get a DNA sample from one of them.
There were no Muslims at that point in history. It is the Quran that teaches to cut off the right hand. The left hand is used for the toilet, and therefore, unclean. If the right hand is severed, it means the person cannot eat, as to use the left hand in a communal dish would defile the meal.
The thief is therefore an outcast in society and usually goes off somewhere to die, or live life alone and unseen, often being forced to steal to survive.
Mohammed didn’t disgrace the earth with his presence until around 700 AD. No Muslims before then.
This practice shows the calloused disregard for life in those days, and what some would do if you didn’t knuckle under to their rule.
In this instance there were no sailors involved, as all hands would be on deck....
My whole point is these hands may be from thieves who may also be referred to as "enemies" in a broad sense. So interpreting the text correctly may be more important than we think.
hey,gimme a hand here would ya?
These are hand-me-downs war trophies from the Pharaoh`s older brother.
No...wait...
LOL!
/rimshot!
Nailed it.
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