Pits with severed hands found in ancient Egyptian palace (4 photos)

They were placed at the entrance to the palace to intimidate visitors.








A group of researchers from the German Archaeological institute discovered and analyzed the first physical evidence ancient practice previously known only from iconographic and literary sources. They found over a dozen right human brushes buried in pits in an ancient Egyptian palace.



Hands in the pits L1542 (upper left corner) and L1543 (lower half of the picture). Yellow arms are located on the dorsal surface, and red - on palmar. The missing elements have been reconstructed. (A,C-F) eight right arms from pit L1543, together with separate phalanges, which may represent additional hands or belong to real hands. The preserved bones are stained. (B) Three right hands on their palmar surfaces from pit L1542.

The excavation site was used around 1640–1530 until AD in the courtyard of the Hyksos palace at Avaris in northeastern Egypt. The Hyksos kings most likely came from the local population, who had strong cultural ties with the Levant or Western Asia.

The hands were found in three separate pits that were on the site of the entrance courtyard in the palace, directly in front of the throne room. Severed hands placed in such a place were probably intended to be seen, it would have made a spectacular spectacle. Which whatever business the visitor had, in order to appear at the court, he had to be impressed with the creepy installation.

“Since not all hands were completely intact and were buried together, we had to use the usual method for mixed burials, to determine the minimum and maximum the number of people needed to compile the remains. Was found, that 12-18 hands were placed in the pits,” the researchers write.

Scientists do not know if the hands were cut off from the living or already dead of people. According to their version, the hands got into the palace less than a day after amputations.



(A) Nile Delta, Northern Egypt (Apple Maps) and position at the Tell el-Dab'a/Avaris site in the Nile Delta. (B) Northern part of the palace Hyksos at Tell el-Dab'a. The red arrow points to pits L1542 and 1543, blue arrow points to pit L1777. (C) Overview of the area of pits L1542 and 1543 (red circle), excavation layer immediately below modern surface in agricultural area. (D) South wall of the building of the wide room, built later on, built near the western enclosing wall of the forecourt of the palace. Pit L 1777 in front of the throne room (indicated by an arrow).

To determine the sex of the owners of the hands, the researchers used the solid nature of the bones and the morphological tendency - men's index fingers are usually longer than their ring fingers. eleven hands were identified as male, and another one was not defined in any way. By according to the authors, it could well be female, since the women of that time in Egypt were little protected from the dangers of war or conflict.



Location of pit L1777, where in front of the throne room was found one of the analyzed hands (indicated by the blue arrow), and the pit area L1542 and L1543, where the remaining 11 hands were found (marked red circle)

Another interesting feature is the absence any sign of the forearms to which the hands were attached. This indicates that during the amputation, the creators of the frightening installation made a lot of efforts to leave the brushes.

Although there is little evidence of hand amputation prior to this period, they do appear in iconographic records already 50-80 years later. According to these reports, cutting off the hands of enemies has become traditional military practice in subsequent dynasties, but this is the first physical evidence of this practice.