Scientists Unearth Several Severed Hands From 3000 Years Ago, Claim Warriors Brought Right Hands of Enemies as 'Gold of Honor'

Collecting spoils of war is a tradition that dates back to ancient times. According to a 2023 study published in the journal Scientific Reports, a pile of severed hands in their skeletal state was discovered in tombs surrounding a 3,500-year-old palace in Egypt. The experts believed those skeletal remains were likely to be tokens that were presented to a king in ancient Egypt after soldiers won battles against their enemies. The hands, which were severed meticulously, were first unearthed in 2011. It was revealed that those hands belonged to at least 12 people, aged between 14 and 21.

The study's lead author Julia Gresky wrote that the hands were cut off from the bodies of enemies soon after their deaths. Then they were placed in tombs surrounding the throne room of King Khayan, a Hyksos ruler of Egypt's 15th dynasty. "It's the only and first physical evidence of cutting hands in Egypt," Manfred Bietak, co-author of the study and an archaeologist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, told Business Insider. Beitak mentioned that there is no concrete evidence of Egyptian cultures chopping off the hands of people as a punishment in ancient times. However, there are archaeological records that hinted about severed hands being offered as tokens to kinds after winning battles.

"They were counting the hands to have an idea about how many enemies have been killed by the Egyptian army," Beitak continued. "The trophies also likely had religious significance. The severed hands could prevent the soldiers from fighting in the netherworld, for instance." The study shared how pharaohs used the severed limbs of enemies to intimidate others. It was also suggested that the severed limbs could have been a part of brutal public ceremonies documented between the 18th and 20th dynasties. In those ceremonies, the soldiers would have presented them to their kind in exchange for "gold of honor" or "valor."

"The hands were in this pit and they were lacking all parts of the lower arm," Gresky, who is also a paleopathologist from the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, told the outlet. "I don't think they were cut from live people but theoretically, they could have been." "This evidence shows that the practice was longer-lasting than previously thought," Beitak added. Excavating that particular region of Egypt was a difficult task due to high levels of humidity on the ground. The humid air and a type of dark soil affected the remains of the skeletons and almost blended it with the surrounding area.

The excavated bones also became soft and brittle over time and it was difficult to detect them without causing damage. "At the excavation site, the hands were hardened with acetone-soluble glue and recovered en bloc in a plaster cast," the study further added. "In the lab, the very fragile bones remained in the plaster casts. Only the surfaces were carefully cleaned of adhering sand. Unfortunately, a thin layer of calcareous deposits has covered some surfaces." The bones couldn't be cleaned properly because that would lead to them breaking apart. Amongst the hands of 12 people discovered, there was possibly a female's hand that indicated women were part of ancient warfare.