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.

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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!*

[martin_fierro]

in which a soldier would present the cut-off right hand of an enemy in exchange for gold

"Cross my palm ... with palm!"

[martin_fierro]

in which a soldier would present the cut-off right hand of an enemy in exchange for gold

The original Digital Age.

[SunkenCiv]

Screwed up manufacturing as well.

[SunkenCiv]

The gold came from the prints.

[SunkenCiv]

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.

[SunkenCiv]

It started when Uncle Fester farted.

[Inyo-Mono]

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

My first thought too. It would be interesting if they could get a DNA sample from one of them.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Approves.

[Monkey Face]

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.

[Monkey Face]

Mohammed didn’t disgrace the earth with his presence until around 700 AD. No Muslims before then.

[mikrofon]

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....

[Sacajaweau]

I wrote Muslim/Arab....The practice of cutting off the hand of a thief precedes Mohammed and is part of the Arab culture. Mohammed just wrote it into his specs....aka...the Quran.

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.

[Craftmore]

hey,gimme a hand here would ya?

[bunkerhill7]

These are hand-me-downs war trophies from the Pharaoh`s older brother.

[null and void]

[MARTIAL MONK]

Bloody wankers.

No...wait...

[null and void]

LOL!

[SunkenCiv]

/rimshot!

[SunkenCiv]

Nailed it.

[dfwgator]

[Oratam]

I predict these hands will soon become ‘lost.’

[SunkenCiv]

This topic has experienced a wave of popularity.

[Dysart]

Ahmose took three hands and was given "gold in double measure,"

Unreported here is that his evil rebel twin, Dextrose, would lop off only the left hand of those he vanquished. Hence, the origin of the term ambidextrose! A lot of people don't know that.

[null and void]

Wait ‘til we fully come to grips with it...

[SunkenCiv]

/rimshot!

[ApplegateRanch]

They are all right hands; there are no lefts.

Thou shalt not steal...

...so, they WERE Muslims before there were Muslims? ;-')

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***in which a soldier would present the cut-off right hand of an enemy in exchange for gold.***

There are wall paintings in Egypt showing baskets of cut off penes (penises?)of dead enemy soldiers.

[wildbill]

Maybe they used them for measuring horses.

On the other hand, you probably wouldn’t want to be the rulers right hand man.

[Fred Nerks]

IN SEARCH OF AMALEK

[ApplegateRanch]

Very interesting paper; thanks for posting the link.