Hands Off! The Severed Hands of the Hyksos Capital

Editor’s Note: This article contains images of human skeletal remains. In a land known for its mummies and legends of cursed tombs, perhaps one of Egypt’s most macabre finds was the 2011 discovery of at least a dozen severed right hands at the site of Tell el-Dab‘a (ancient Avaris). It is the only such find ever recorded from ancient Egypt.1 Avaris in the eastern Nile Delta was the Egyptian capital of the Hyksos, who arose from among the local population of West Asian immigrants and ruled Egypt as the 15th Dynasty (c. 1650–1550 BCE). The hands were uncovered inside three […]