Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content, Sign up to get Al Bawaba's exclusive celeb scoops and entertainment news, Syrian Man Reveals Worst Torture Methods Used by the Regime, Serie A: AC Milan vs Tottenham predicted lineups, Rihanna didn't get paid for her Super Bowl show, Awadallah jailed for sedition goes on hunger strike. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. After the arrest and interrogation of 48 monks, three of them, including the subprior and sacrist, were found guilty of the robbery and flayed. 20 Of The Slowest Historical Torture Methods We Can't Believe Living Sometimes, the Assyrian army didnt stop at killing their enemies. It was outlined as a naval punishment for sailors in the Rhodian Maritime Code. The dermatologist Ernst G. Jung says that the main causes of death due to skinning . 434 0 obj<> endobj Another innovation attributed to the Spanish Inquisition, the Judas Cradle, also known as the Judas Chair or Guided Cradle, was a torture device dating from the 16th century. February 1934. 0000001205 00000 n Assyrian art shows a parade of their slaves chained to large stones, being forced to drag massive rocks like mules. In their royal edicts, the Neo-Assyrian kings seem to gloat over the terrible fate they imposed upon their captives, and that flaying seems, in particular, to be the fate meted out to rebel leaders. And, Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims as part of their human sacrifice rituals, and many more. Instead, they were more frequently attached by rope in order to prolong the torture. Jung provides some examples of this triumphant rhetoric. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. Several English writers during the 17th century recorded keelhauling on naval ships; however, there remains no formal note of these actions in the ships logs. Others went further. All of Assyria was subject to their resettlement policy, which uprooted whole families and moved them across the country. The stake would be hammered in with a mallet, and it would come out at either his breast, head, or shoulders. 0000001500 00000 n 0000001622 00000 n Reserved, unlike many of the items appearing on this list, exclusively for women, the device was predominantly employed against those persons accused of adultery or abortion. Dermatologist Ernst G. Jung notes that the typical causes of death due to flaying are shock, critical loss of blood or other body fluids, hypothermia, or infections, and that the actual death is estimated to occur from a few hours up to a few days after the flaying. The victim would . After enduring an agonizing rupturing of their anal canal, the victim would die unless released. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. Native Americans flayed their captives to make them suffer for as long as possible. Murderers were handed over to the victims family, who were free to do with them as they willed. The Babylonian destruction of their capital city Nineveh in 612 B.C. Instead, asphyxiation is the most common cause of death in live burials, with the individual, unless carefully buried, unable to breathe. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. Torture methods are known to be brutal ways of enforcing punishment and squeezing out the truth from perpetrators. Then the inquisitor would heat up the other end of the cage, leaving the panicked rats with no choice but to eat their way out through the victims flesh. During the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) 100 cuts were traditional, after which the condemned was dispatched with a strike to the heart; by the time of the Ming, records indicate as many as 3,000 cuts were made over as long as three days. Premature or live burial, as the name suggests, refers to the practice of burying an individual whilst they are still alive. "The nobles and elders of the city came out to me to save their lives," he declared. They seized my feet and said: If it pleases you, kill! If it pleases you, do what you will!. The victim would be laid down on his belly with his hands tied behind his back and his rectum would be slit up by a razor, after which a paste would be applied to stop the bleeding before a stake would be thrusted into his body. Their kingdom which lasted for some 2000 years in an area (which is now Northern Iraq) had no natural barriers as such to protect their homeland. He was executed by pressing. Originally described in Plutarchs Life of Artaxerxes II, the first recorded, if challenged, use of scaphism was against a Persian soldier named Mithridates in 401 BCE. Make peace with me and come out to me! the envoy called out. From Ashurnasirpal II:.mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, I have made a pillar facing the city gate, and have flayed all the rebel leaders; I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. Ormerod, Dorset Press (1987), Von Ursprung des Schindens in Assyrien, Ernst G. Jung, in Kleine Kultrugeschichte der Haut, Spring Verlag (2007), Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear, Jan Bondeson, W.W. Norton & Company (2002), Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality, Paul Barber University Press (1988), Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion, Gunnar Samuelsson, Mohr Siebeck Publishing (2013), Crucifixion in the Roman World: The Use of Nails at the Time of Christ, John C. Robison, Studia Antiqua (June 2002), Death by a Thousand Cuts, Timothy Brook, Jerome Bourgon, and Gregory Blue, Harvard University Press (2008), The Cambridge Ancient History: Assyria and Babylon, c. 1370-1300 B.C., C.J. It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know. Although people think that torture is an effective method, because of Applebaum's successful use of logos, diction . At least 500,000 people including women are currently languishing in Assad regime prisons and detention centers, according to opposition sources. The wheel would be erected like a pole, and the executioner would be permitted to decapitate the convict. The convicted would be taken to a public stage and tied on the floor. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic about instilling fear in wrong doers, prisoners of war, or anyone that needed to be punished for any type of crime. Life behind a citys walls when the Assyrian army drew close was terrifying. The method was done by tying the victim in a wooden frame and then cutting the flesh in varied, multiple and non-deadly slices. VEerzLB(%_E|=".hq%%}]|~8P[Cxwf{7B_`s@jKSbJAsxAP,XRY\HmY8@iCK3rT ,4 _f,alNsg3kCQ87{i$js/8ZuU5{3{$\^75Bp,?q[Y0WB:Zi>PTYa,j0a'Np^ee6d1}$|>U}co~UE~OeXm7lfb}@;`b\v+Tu:2ylCYac0A-z~wg0y'4>-{3Qka3EJ?4uObNW=IeZ6oKq'Rcca.PvFz4Mw_Wsn>!);? Several variations of the device existed, reflecting its use in a number of circumstances. He would then be lowered very slowly, the pyramid opening his anal orifice and slowly impaling him. It is unclear whether keelhauling was a common practice during the ancient world. The cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the ripping out of the heart were all standard punishments in this corner of the ancient world (Hamblin). Using this method of torture would require the victim to be stripped and suspended above the device. Christ on the Cross, by Carl Bloch (c. 1870). Tortured by the Syrian Bashar al-Assad regime in prison for seven years, Muhlis al-Drubi cannot forget the horrors he experienced, including having boiling water poured over him and reverse. Multiple methods exist to accomplish the violent feat, including transversal or longitudinal impalement and bears striking similarities to bamboo torture. 0000000016 00000 n The practices represented in depictions include the cutting of the throats of enemies and the decapitation of dead bodies. V)gB0iW8#8w8_QQj@&A)/g>'K t;\ $FZUn(4T%)0C&Zi8bxEB;PAom?W= The early Assyrians were a warrior society. She refused to renounce her faith and was sentenced to death by being bludgeoned on a spiked wheel. Every young man was expected to train as a warrior and be ready to fight. nQt}MA0alSx k&^>0|>_',G! Shakespeare referenced the practice in The Winters Tale, whilst the legendary fictitious hunter Allan Quartermain experiences a vision of the brutal technique. Some crimes were dealt with in savage ways. Many crimes in Assyria were punished by dismemberment or death. Abstract and Figures. Whilst historians have questioned whether or not the brazen bull truly existed or was merely an early form of propaganda against an unpopular ruler, it enjoys a prolonged legacy nonetheless. 0000002742 00000 n HBO. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. They invented the battering ram, a device that would have seemed completely unstoppable in their time. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. 0000006301 00000 n This was the first country to make military service mandatory for every male citizen, no matter who he was. Tied to a wooden frame in a public place, small pieces of flesh would be slowly cut from the body. In the sixth season of the television series, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:11. 0000003018 00000 n Accused of attending anti-regime protests, al-Drubi, 42, was detained in 2012. The Worst Ways to Die: Torture Practices of the Ancient World Although women were excluded from these practices and doctors were required to be present, the Inquisition nevertheless enjoyed near limitless authority to inflict suffering upon those entrusted to their custody. If our current societies finally consider women as individuals in their own right, this was rarely the case in the past. It shows the decapitated heads of the enemy Ummite soldiers being carried away by vultures. Equally, in 1675 the Sikh martyr Bhai Dayala was subjected to boiling after refusing to convert to Islam; according to legend, as he burned Dayala calmly recited Sikh scripture. Hypothesized to originate from the Kingdom of the Franks, by the time of the Holy Roman Empire it formed a staple of the legal system. }U|m?2H:3^`t5`Sh;V"DV;m -6A:'O!K2dO'qX,VAUu5GqMQ=2@nDA`N`6u90]p*1+Js. Flaying. Whilst small-scale flaying, although painful, is endurable, large-scale skinning inevitably leads to death. Wikimedia Commons. Whilst some intended to kill, albeit resulting in slow, torturous deaths, others were intended to merely maim and hurt without fatal outcomes. Then each of you will eat fruit from your own vine and fig tree and drink water from your own cistern. Those who did not, he warned, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine.. In the second year, they would go out to war. Often, but not always used as a method of execution, the prisoner is left for an indefinite period of time to suffer from starvation and dehydration whilst trapped in isolation and darkness. 11 tortures from the Middle Ages that were reserved for women Insulted, humiliated, beaten, chased away, tortured Such is the fate of the "weaker sex" throughout history. endstream endobj 447 0 obj<> endobj 448 0 obj<> endobj 449 0 obj<>stream 434 19 Wardah Hajra When they came to your town, the men at the gates were vicious and battle-hardened. That in days to come the site of that city, and its temples and gods, might not be remembered, I completely blotted it out with floods of water and made it like a meadow., One Assyrian king recorded sparing some of the people he invaded but only after they shamelessly humbled themselves before him. Appearing repeatedly throughout modern popular film, television, and literature, rat torture is an especially cruel method of punishment. When their year at war ended and they were allowed to return home to their families, they lived lives haunted by ghosts of the people theyd inflicted all these torments upon. 10 Brilliant And Brutal Methods Of Ancient Psychological Warfare Flaying: Inside The Grotesque History Of Skinning People Alive Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. In so doing, the individual, should they survive punishment, would be marked for life, unable to breastfeed any future children and thus prevented from fulfilling the chief role of women in Medieval society. Gradually declining, by 1813 the practice started to be outlawed, with the last known execution by the wheel known to have occurred taking place in Prussia in 1841. Although today generally outlawed (at least in the Western world; regarded as a barbaric deed) torture was once regarded as a righteous and just treatment in response to a criminal outrage. The United States has continued to use the method as recently as 2003, when, under interrogation by the CIA, Manadel al-Jamadi was killed after just 30 minutes at Abu Ghraib Prison. Most famously, bamboo torture was alleged to have been used during World War II by the Japanese Empire against Allied prisoners of war. 436 0 obj<>stream Appearing in civilizations around the world, two primary purposes recur as the motivations behind the practice: human sacrifice and criminal punishment. Among the alleged cruelties bestowed upon these religious minorities was the so-called Roman Candle. }?9{we#5SS"&~j[}mwD { 4A6*({[OUq.-1!>4?izc^(a7-=HkN{i,J~WnxjWwcON>Egjmd.pC =r*5o@/g e_?+\ VO7o:\~{[eWirG7a{8Nx?= 9^+:2Z The period from the ninth century to the end of the seventh century B.C. This practice, in addition to causing immense suffering, was supposed to represent the spiritual defilement of the individual, with their eternal soul unable to reside in one piece in future lives. 10 Most Painful Execution Methods - Eskify startxref The king of Urartu, upon hearing the Assyrian army approach, stabbed himself in the chest rather than face them. Eventually, depending on the strength of the individual, the victim would be unable to maintain the required position any longer and the pyramidal tip of the chair would begin to impale their anus. 5 The Torture Of The Survivors. Impalement - Wikipedia Overhead, the men inside the engine were protected by wooden plates covered in damp animal skins that put out the flaming arrows the defenders fired from above. depict warriors methodically removing the skin from prisoners' bodies, marking them as one of the first cultures to partake in the brutal torture. The dangerous men who fought against Assyria were sometimes given a chance to redeem themselves. One Assyrian king recorded sparing some of the people he invaded but only after they shamelessly humbled themselves before him. The origins of the torture date to as early as ancient Babylon, with the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) detailing the punishment of impalement for women convicted of murdering her husband. The Zhengde Emperor flayed six rebels,[9] and Zhang Xianzhong also flayed many people. This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. 12 Torturous Methods of Execution in History that Will Make You Squirm endstream endobj 452 0 obj<>/W[1 1 1]/Type/XRef/Index[57 377]>>stream BCE) detailing the punishment of impalement for women convicted of murdering her husband. Using humans are the base substance akin to the wax foundations of a candle, these victims were tied to stakes in the imperial garden for the amusement of the deranged Emperor. The city and its houses, from its foundations to its top, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, Seenacherib declared. Exported by Europeans during the Age of Exploration, this method of torture is documented as occurring as far away as French-controlled Louisiana and in British-controlled India during the 18th century. G*0 oAsvHkj]YK Ay$^i-:Gb&@SubuQ~ay@$": 1O4=z+088r"YWv;V?Ry6UR=r? Royal edicts dating from the time of Ashurnasirpal II glorify the deed, proclaiming I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. From vagina impalement to 'death by elephant' - Gruesome - The Sun The former, stemming from Elizabethan England, is based on claims the Tower of London contained a Rats Dungeon wherein a cell blow high-water mark would draw in rats from the River Thames and victims would have fleshtorn from the arms and legs. "They hung us up from our wrists to the ceilings. Torturemuseum.net. The methods interpretation was that the skin of the victims back was flayed and pried open like wings. 0 Wikimedia Commons. 10 Horrors Of Being Invaded By The Assyrian Army - Listverse With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870.