---
title: "This Is The World’s First Knife Hand"
date: "2018-04-16"
modified: "2018-04-16"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/knife-hand-skeleton/"
categories:
  - "Culture"
  - "History"
  - "Mandatory Fun"
---

# This Is The World’s First Knife Hand

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/18987878-1.png>)

A Marine is deadly on land or sea, with gun or knife, but there’s one weapon that’s wholly the provenance of the U.S. Marine Corps: the knife hand.

[Formalized](<https://angrystaffofficer.com/2017/06/26/the-history-of-the-military-knife-hand/>) by then-Brig. Gen. Silas Casey during the American Civil War, the methodology behind the all-American knife hand is simple: The hand “shall be raised smartly to an angle of 45 degrees and, through rapid vigorous motion, be brought down in a series of strokes viz a trebuchet.” There’s a [reason](<https://www.wearethemighty.com/humor/this-is-the-kill-casualty-radius-of-mattis-knife-hand>) why Secretary of Defense James Mattis described the kill/casualty radius of his own knife hand as “whatever your Marines make it … hundreds of miles”; the knife hand is a Marine’s best friend.

It’s also, we now know, far older than modern militaries — sort of. [New research](<https://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2018vol96/Micarelli/Micarelli.pdf>) published in *Journal of Anthropological Sciences* reveals that a human skeleton [excavated](<https://gizmodo.com/medieval-italian-man-replaced-his-amputated-hand-with-a-1825296669?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow>) from a necropolis on northern Italy came with a literal f\*cking knife hand.

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/image-placeholder-title-322.png>)

Photo and drawing of T US 380. Notice the orientation of the right arm, the position of the
D-shaped buckle and the location of the knife. Unlike most burials, the right arm of the individual
was bent over the pelvis in correspondence of both buckle and knife[Journal of Anthropological Studies/Dr. Gianni De Zuccato and Dr. Brunella Bruno](<https://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2018vol96/Micarelli/Micarelli.pdf>)

The skeleton, referred to under the regrettable MOS of “T US 380,” apparently replaced his amputated right hand with a short blade by attaching a metal cap to the stump of his wrist with a leather strap and a buckle and “tightening the prosthesis with his teeth,” the researchers [write](<https://www.isita-org.com/jass/Contents/2018vol96/Micarelli/Micarelli.pdf>).

And apparently, the makeshift knife hand served this poor dead Italian bastard just fine without modern medicine! “This Longobard male shows a remarkable survival after a forelimb amputation during pre-antibiotic era,” the researchers explain. “Not only did he adjust very well to his condition, he did so with the use of a culturally-derived device, along with considerable community support.”

Why the VA hasn’t started offering these out to Marines is beyond me. But I’ll say this: I know exactly what we’re getting Mattis for his next birthday, [the innocent bystanders of Washington, D.C., be damned](<https://www.duffelblog.com/2017/06/mattis-evening-walk/>).

## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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