by Gwynn Guilford
The recent discovery of the remains of 16 human right-hands in the Nile river delta offers evidence of a grisly practice of the Hyksos military:
[A] soldier would present the cut-off right hand of an enemy in exchange for gold, [excavation director Manfred] Bietak explains in the most recent edition of the periodical Egyptian Archaeology. "Our evidence is the earliest evidence and the only physical evidence at all," Bietak said. "Each pit represents a ceremony."
Cutting off the right hand, specifically, not only would have made counting victims easier, it would have served the symbolic purpose of taking away an enemy's strength. "You deprive him of his power eternally," Bietak explained.
The horrific practice of using hands as currency has more recent (and likely larger-scale) precedent, in the Belgian Congo:
Some of the most famous images and anecdotes from the Congo include photos of men, women, and children even in single-digit age with hands hacked off with axes and machetes, most often for not meeting the unreasonable demands of Belgian quotas [for rubber]. Hands were chopped off to prove to officers, who insisted bullets not be wasted by soldiers on recreational hunting, requiring a severed hand for each bullet discharged. Not meeting quotas was also punishable by outright execution.
Amputation was also a widespread intimidation tactic in Sierra Leone in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The Dish 