A recent analysis suggests that the twelve severed hands discovered heaped up in the courtyard of an ancient Egyptian palace may have been the product of a macabre "trophy-taking" ritual by an outsider.

As early as the New Kingdom, which lasted from the 16th to the 11th centuries BCE, inscriptions and reliefs from Egyptian tombs and temples show hands that have been cut off or amputated. The real amputated hands have never been discovered or examined by archaeologists before, claim the study's authors.

According to the study's authors, "they belonged to at least eleven males and maybe one female, which may suggest that women and warfare were not poles apart."

The researchers examined the right hands that were discovered in 2011 and were buried in three different pits in the courtyard of the Hyksos palace at Avaris/Tell el-Dab'a in northeastern Egypt.

The palace was built during the 15th Dynasty (1640–1530 BCE), a time when the Hyksos kings controlled over Lower and Middle Egypt up to the modern-day city of El Quseyya, which was then known as Cusae. It was once believed that the Hyksos were Egyptian invaders and that their monarchs were the first foreign rulers of the civilization. However, current research suggests that this notion may have been false.

The severed hands discovered in the pits, according to the German and Austrian study team, are from at least 12 adults, while the finding of numerous fragmentary hands and fingers suggests that there may have been as many as 18 hands in all.

The researchers, led by paleopathologist Julia Gresky of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, first looked at taphonomic explanations for the hands' specific positioning. After death, bodies and body parts are examined by taphonomy to evaluate the processes of preservation, decomposition, and fossilization.

The researchers believe the severed hands may have been placed on purpose, even though it is typical for human parts to drift apart over time, be forcefully separated by flood or scavenger, or progressively separated by weathering and erosion.

The authors state that the hands were buried with their fingers widely spread, mostly on their palmar sides, after any associated pieces of the forearm were removed.

Six of the 12 hands analyzed had intact proximal row carpal bones, a group of 8 tiny bones in the wrist that connects hands to forearms. Researchers believe the hands were purposefully severed by slicing through the joint capsule and then cutting through the tendons that connect the wrist because no lower arm bone fragments were discovered.

Gresky and colleagues state that "mutilating persons without concern to their life is often done by cutting the arm at any anatomical position."

"This approach leaves a portion of the lower arm still linked to the hand, but it is quicker and simpler. If this was the case, individuals presenting the hands or those in charge of the event cared enough about how they were presented to cut off portions of the lower arm "add the authors.

The fact that the hands were still "soft and pliable" when they were found in the pits, according to the experts, suggests that they were either buried before the onset of rigor mortis or shortly after it had gone.

After a few hours, rigor mortis peaks around 12 to 24 hours and, depending on factors including humidity, temperature, and the age and physical condition of the deceased, often diminishes between 1 to 3 days.

For example, rigor mortis of the hand often starts 6 to 8 hours after death. Onset differs for various bodily regions as well. So, the researchers came to the conclusion that the bodies were probably dismembered during or just before a ceremony, and that the hands were then buried in the pit once rigor mortis had gone.

The researchers claim that right-hand amputation was used by the Hyksos in Egypt between 50 and 80 years before it was mentioned in tomb hieroglyphs.

According to a relief depicting a mass of hands at King Ahmose's temple in Abydos, "the Egyptians adopted this ritual at the latest in his reign," they write.

The authors state that one of the most crucial concerns this study seeks to address is whether the mutilation served as a sort of punishment or a reward for military success.

"The concept of law-enforcing punishment as the motivation for these acts argues against the location, treatment, and possibly posture of the severed hands," they contend.

On the magnificent forecourt of the palace, in front of the royal room, were the trenches where the hands were interred. The fact that they were positioned in such a noticeable spot where the general public could see them, according to the team, is evidence of how pervasive this "trophy-taking" behavior was.