So, there's this skeleton that archaeologists discovered in Italy during the mid-1990s. They reckon the man, who became the skeleton, was alive somewhere between the sixth and eighth century. Those were hard times. Life was short and seldom sweet. In the case of our man the skeleton, somewhere along the line, he lost his hand. Archaeologists say that it was taken off with a single blow. Maybe it was because he was involved in a war or being punished for a crime. It could have been removed for medical reasons. Anyway, BOOM, gone. It's amazing, in an era where antibiotics didn't exist, that someone would survive an amputation. Sure, it happened but it was rare. The recovery process must have been terrible. But did our pal from so long ago allow the lose of a hand and acquisition of a new stump get him down? Hell no. He did what I'd like to believe anyone of you reading this would do: HE REPLACED HIS LOST HAND WITH A FRIGGING KNIFE BLADE.
According to a paper published in the Journal of Antrological Sciences by Ileana Micarelli, Robert Paine, Caterina Giostra, Mary Anne Tafuri, Antonio Profico, Marco Boggioni, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Danilo Massani, Andrea Papini and Giorgio Manzi (something something Too Many Cooks.) Once the Middle Ages bad ass healed up, he found a way to lash a knife blade to his stump using a leather mount that he tied in place with his teeth. The paper makes for pretty dense reading, but Gizmodo's George Dvorsky does a great job of digging into it:
Further analysis of the man's bones points to the use of a prosthesis. Bony healing tissue called callus formed around the ends of the bone, which likely formed as the result of frequent biomechanical force. Supporting archaeological evidence exists in the form of a knife, a cap on the stump, and a D-shaped buckle with decomposed organic material around it, likely leather. Other male skeletons found at the site were buried with their arms by their sides, but T US 380 had his right arm placed across his torso, and a knife blade with the butt aligned with his amputated wrist.
It's not clear what the man may have used the knife for when he was alive, but I need to believe it had something to do with fighting Deadites and the possibility of securing an ancient magical book, charged with the power to send him to the future.
Image via Pxhere
