Understanding historical information can be difficult, especially when only a very limited number of sources of information are available. Much of what we know about life in Ancient Egypt derives from illustrations on temple and tomb walls, as well as papyrus documents from the same settings. This is unlikely to give us a completely unbiased view of life in these times, making other sources of information particularly valuable. Accounts of Egyptian military victories in the New Kingdom, from the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties, refer to victorious soldiers presenting severed right hands to the Pharaoh as trophies, receiving in return 'gold of honour', thought to have been a ceremonial necklace of golden beads. This story is, however, known only from inscriptions in the tombs of the warriors that received this honour, and may therefore be allegorical.
In 2011 excavations at the Tell el-Dab'a site (ancient city of Avaris) in the eastern Nile Delta uncovered a series of severed right hands from a Hyksos Period (15th Dynasty) palace, potentially providing support for this practice.
In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on 31 March 2023, Julia Gresky of the Division of Natural Sciences at the German Archaeological Institute, Manfred Bietak of the AustrianArchaeological Institute, Emmanuele Petiti, also of the Division of Natural Sciences at the German Archaeological Institute, Christiane Schefer of Human Biology at University Potsdam, and Michael Schultz of the Institute of Anatomy and Embryology at Göttingen University Medical School, present the results of a bioarchaeological analysis of the Tell el-Dab'a hands, and the implications of this for our understanding of Ancient Egyptian culture and military practices.
The hands were found within three pits on the forecourt of a Middle Bronze Age (roughly 1640-1530 BC) Hyksos Palace. This palace was built on top of an older, 14th Dynasty, palace, and lasted for much longer, apparently being in use throughout the Hyksos Period. Its most important occupant appears to have been the Hyksos Pharaoh Khayan (who reigned somewhere between 1700 BC and 1580 BC), with numerous seal impressions bearing his mark found in the lowest parts of the pits. The palace appears to have been in use until the Late Hyksos Period, although it apparently lost its status during that time, with a newer palace complex being built further to the north.
Archaeological evidence of severed hands in Hyksos Period Tell el-Dab‘a, Northern Egypt: (A) Nile Delta, Northern Egypt and position of the site Tell el-Dab‘a/Avaris in
the Nile Delta. (B) Northern
part of the Hyksos Palace at Tell el-Dab‘a, Phase E1-D3. (C) Overview of the area of Pit L1542 and 1543 (red circle),
the excavation layer closely beneath the modern surface in the agricultural area. (D) South wall of a later added
broad-room building built against the western enclosure wall of the palace’s forecourt. Pit L 1777 in front of
the throne room (indicated by the arrow). (E) Overview of the 11 right hands in the Pits L1542 and L1543. (F)
Single right hand on its palm with wide-splayed fingers. Manfred Bietak in Gresky et al. (2023).The smallest of the three pits, L1777, is directly in front of the throne room, and contained a single articulated hand. This was sealed beneath the south wall of a later building, probably a temple constructed at the west end of the palace forecourt. The pit actually appears to have been dug into a foundation trench for the later temple, cutting through a layer of loam-mortar at the base of the trench. Two further pits were discovered 7 m to the north east of this wall, covered by modern agricultural land. These pits are in alignment with the enclosure wall of the original courtyard, and contain no material which can be ascribed to after the Hyksos Period. One of these pits. L1524, contains the remains of three hands, while the other, L1543, contains the remains of eight hands. Thus between them, the three pits contain the severed right hands of 12 individuals. A number of disarticulated fingers are also present.
The hands appear to have been left exposed for some time after their deposition, rather than actively buried, and the bones are subsequently heavily eroded, with cracking and flaking. The soil from which they were extracted was humid, adding to the problems of excavating the bones, which were soft and brittle. All of the hands and isolated fingers could be identified as being from the right. Pit L1777 contains a single complete right hand, Pit L1542 contains two right hands, plus an individual finger from a third hand, indicating the right hands of at least three individuals were placed in this pit. Pit L1543 contains eight complete or near-complete right hands, plus a number of detached phalanges, from which Gresky et al. conclude that the hands of at least twelve individuals were placed in the pit.
Of the eleven complete right hands, eight were placed with their palms down, and three with their palms up. The individual fingers and partial hands are presumed to have been disturbed from their original resting places. Several of the hands had their first digit twisted into a position which would indicate a severe dislocation in a living individual.
Some disturbance of the hands appears to have happened after their deposition; as indicated by the disarticulated state of some of the fingers, and the individual fingers present, which presumably were either removed from intact hands or represent hands which have otherwise completely disappeared. This could be due to the activities of Rodents, but there are no signs of any gnawing on any of the bones so this seems unlikely. The most likely explanation is that the pits were left open after the hands were deposited in them.
The majority of the hands in the pits are in a flattened position, which suggests that they were either placed this way, or flattened out by soil being compacted on top of them as they were buried. Since the evidence suggests that the hands were not covered up soon after their deposition, it seems plausible that they were deliberately placed in a flattened, splayed position, perhaps to make the display more impressive, although there is no evidence of the hands being organized in any other way, with their positioning within the pits being apparently random.
Six of the hands have the proximal carpel row of bones preserved, and none of these show any cut marks or signs of tissue removal, and fragments of forearm were located in any of the pits, indicating the process by which the process by which the hands were removed from the lower arm was a precise one. This can be achieved by cutting into the joint capsule and cutting through the tendons as they intersect the wrist joint, although this requires a high degree of skill on the part of the operator. Any error during this process is likely to leave cut marks on the bones of the severed hand. Generally speaking, when people wish to amputate a hand, and aren't particularly concerned about the survival of the owner of that hand, then they simply hack through the bones of the lower arm. This is fast and easy, but leaves a portion of the lower arm attached to the hand. This cannot be ruled out in the case of the Avaris hands, but if this was the case, somebody took care to remove the arm fragments from the hand in a precise way later.
Hands can, of course, be collected both from the living and the recently deceased. Whichever was the case at Avaris, the hands must have been soft and flexible when they were placed into the pits. This implies that either the hands were placed before rigor mortis had set in, or after it had passed. Rigor mortis tends to begin affecting hands about 6-8 hours after death, and passes after 24-48 hours. Therefore, either living victims were mutilated shortly before the hands were placed into the pits, or, more likely, they were collected elsewhere and stored for a while before being placed into the its.
All of the examined hands have ossified epiphyseal lines, which does not occur til adulthood, but none showed any signs of age-related illnesses, implying that the individuals from which they were removed were probably over 20, but had not reached old age. It was not possible to carry out a genetic analysis of any of the hands, but based upon there size and morphology, implies that all bar one of the intact hands were removed from adult males, with the one exception being removed from an adult of unknown sex.
The hands at Tell el-Dab'a could have been removed as a punishment, or collected from a battlefield as trophies, as a way of demonstrating a military achievement. However, the practice of removing hands as a punishment is not recorded in any known Egyptian text,
The positioning of the pits at the entrance to the palace complex implies that the ceremonies in which things were placed in them were public ones. This supports the idea that the hands were being ritually presented to the Pharaoh in a ritual similar to that described in later New Kingdom texts, confirming this practice did take place, and extending the time window for the activity back to the 15th Dynasty (about a century before the advent of the 18th Dynasty and the founding of the New Kingdom).
The fact that neither any cut marks nor any part of the lower arm was found associated with any of the hands implies that the hands went through a careful preparation process before being deposited. The majority of the hands were found lying face down with their fingers splayed out, which Gresky et al. believe is likely to have been the original position of all the hands, with those found in other positions showing signs of subsequent disturbance. Had this been the case, it would have been easy for anyone looking into the pits to have identified each item as being a single right hand, therefore representing a single individual.
All of the hands came from adults, but none of them from anyone of great age. Furthermore, all, or almost all (depending on the origin of the single ambivalent hand), were male. This makes it quite possible that these were hands taken from defeated enemy warriors, the majority of whom are likely to have been male (warrior women were not unknown in the ancient world, so the uncertain hand might represent a degree of flexibility in selecting hands for the ritual, but there is no way of knowing if this was the case).
The disarticulated nature of the remains, combined with the absence of any genetic evidence, makes it impossible to determine from whom the hands the hands were taken. However, the find does point towards the Hyksos as having introduced the custom of ceremonially taking the right hand of defeated foes to Egypt, considerably earlier than the oldest known description of the practice, in an inscription dedicated to the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Ahmose. This inscription introduces a new pictogram of a splayed hand with spread fingers, quite different from earlier Egyptian depictions of hands in side view. This pictogram appears to refer to a severed hand. By the time of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Merenptah, the Semitic word 'כף', which can be translated as 'hand' or 'palm' was in use, again apparently referring specifically to severed hands, something which persisted through the 20th Dynasty.
Iconographic evidence of severed hands: inscription in the tomb of Ahmose at El-Kab depicting a very realistic representation of an outstretched palm, showing five spread fingers. William Vivian Davies in Gresky et al. (2023).
The evidence presented by Gresky et al. appears to promote a strong connection between the Hyksos (15th) Dynasty and the introduction of hand-severing as a practice. Gresky et al. note that records of Egyptians mutilating the bodies of their enemies go all the way back to the 1st Dynasty Pharaoh Narmer, but specific references to hand-taking all date to after the Hyksos Period. Subsequent to this, seals commonly depict rows of severed hands, as well as heads, and the heads of Animals; all of these subjects also appear in roughly contemporary Middle Bronze Age inscriptions from Syria.
The taking of bodyparts as trophies is known from across the world. The Tell el-Dab'a example apparently included a distinct element of presentation to this practice, with the taken hands apparently being publicly displayed outside the Pharaoh's palace, and the severed hands presumably increasing the Pharaoh's status, by indicating military prowess and dominance over nearby states.
Physical dismemberment and mutilation are widely recorded in Egyptian inscriptions, and are commonly combined with accounts of war and conflict. Many inscriptions depict piles of severed heads, ears, and/or genitals, suggesting a codified way of removing these bodyparts, apparently demonstrating the authority of the Pharaoh, and his ability to defend the country against chaos by defeating his enemies, something which needed to be visibly recorded in a way that his subjects could see it.
The taking of right hands is clearly a variant on this, demonstrating the defeating of enemies, in a way that would rob them of the future ability to carry out attacks upon the kingdom, as well as to perform many ordinary daily activities. It is unlikely that the people from whom the hands were taken were captured and used as slaves, since slaves mutilated in this way would have been all but useless. More likely the hands were removed after the death of their owners, which, given Egyptian views on the afterlife and the need to preserve the body intact, would still have been an alarming punishment.
The way in which the hands have been carefully prepared and placed suggests that the motivation for this was not linked to law enforcement. Instead, these appear to be trophies taken in (or after) battle, and subsequently displayed in public. The hands identified came from eleven males and one possible female victims, which may indicate that women were involved in warfare at the time, although this is hard to prove. The ritual which took place here appears to have been connected to the 'gold of honour' ritual performed in the New Kingdom, in which successful military leaders presented severed hands to the pharaoh in return for decorations.
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