Grisly Trophies

Abstract

The seemingly macabre practice of severing the hands of defeated enemies on the battlefield was a hallmark of the Egyptian New Kingdom military. Soldiers would present these grisly trophies to the king as a record of their kills and would be rewarded proportionally—often with the “gold of valor.” Yet this tradition appears fully-realized during the wars between the Thebans, specifically Ahmose, and the Hyksos, with few clues as to its origins. The discovery of several pits of severed human hands at the Hyksos capital Avaris (modern Tell el-Dab‘a) has been described as the only archaeological evidence of this practice and may shed light on its enigmatic roots—not as military procedure, but rather as a foreign kingly act of retribution or criminal punishment. (Please note: This article contains images of human skeletal remains.)