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. Both named victims of the blood eagle Halfdan Long-Leg and lla of Northumbria were of royal blood, lending credence to speculation the ritual was reserved for persons of special importance. The dangerous men who fought against Assyria were sometimes given a chance to redeem themselves. If you think you can handle it, then heres a list of ancient torture methods thatll be sure to make your toes curl. 434 0 obj<> endobj updated September 15, 2018, 9:16 pm, The 10 Most Gruesome Ancient Torture Methods, Top 10 Forgotten Princesses Adapted in Comics, 10 Disturbing Photographs Telling Tales of Disaster, The 10 Most Influential Photos of All Time, 10 Most Famous Samurai Warriors in History, Top 10 curiosities about cats in the ancient Egypt, Top 10 Crazy Hoaxes and Conspiracy Theories About Corona Virus, The 10 Most Interesting Super Mario Conspiracy Theories, Top 10 Controversial Boxing Decisions in History, Why do planes crash? Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. by A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of Lachish. As a form of punishment, crucifixion exists still today, notably in Saudi Arabia and Iran, where the most recent known occurrences of crucifixion occurred as recently as the early 2000s. In many recorded instances, the breast would be ripped clean off, along with a substantial portion of the upper torso, resulting in near-instant death. More often than not, though, the surviving men would be put through the hells they used to psychologically terrify the world. Thereafter, his head, hands, and feet, were left outside the boats, whilst the remainder of his person was contained within the floating prison. Attached to a spiked wall, the unfortunate woman would be attached to the mechanism and pulled along by her breasts until they were torn from her. Wikimedia Commons. The cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the tearing out of the heart were all standard punishments in this. Assyrian art shows a parade of their slaves chained to large stones, being forced to drag massive rocks like mules. Immurement of a nun, as part of a fictitious painting by Vinzenz Katzler (c. 1868). He eventually died after two days of being pressed. 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. 0000000689 00000 n This is a slow and painful execution, with causes of death ranging from blood loss, hypothermia, or infections. In contrast to common depiction, most crucifixions did not involve the nailing of the victims hands or feet to the cross. Ancient Torture. Facing blame for both causing the blaze and providing inadequate response to the inferno, which caused widespread damage to 10 of Romes 14 districts, Emperor Nero blamed the fiery outbreak on religious minorities including early Christians. Many crimes in Assyria were punished by dismemberment or death. The Judas Cradle is a stool-shaped torture device with a pyramid structure on top. He wrote, I hung the heads of the kings upon the shoulders of their nobles, and with singing and music I paraded.. Lewandowski, Herv. The horrors and the guilt of murdering and torturing innocent people wreaked havoc on their psyches. In some instances, mercy might be granted allowing for a swifter death, with the wheelset on fire or the condemned beheaded. In the medieval ages, torture was used to punish heretical behavior and sexual offenders. 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. This is more commonly called skinning . This is more commonly called skinning. The miseries of war: No. Trapping a condemned prisoner, the individual would be force-fed milk and honey as well as coated in the foodstuffs. A Judas Cradle, on display at the Museum of Torture in Freiburg, Germany. A military culture. Known also to have been used throughout Scotland on various occasions between 1200 and 1600, the Holy Roman Empire also employed boiling as the legal punishment for coin forgery. When they came to your town, the men at the gates were vicious and battle-hardened. Immurement, derived from the later im in and murus wall, literally comprises the entombing of an individual inside a wall or enclosed space without means of exit. Wikimedia Commons. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. Brewer (2012), Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion. The rocks were to be used to build palaces and wonders for the kings, and the slaves couldnt stop for a moment. Sometimes, they got creative. 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. [1] Hypothermia is possible, as skin provides natural insulation and is essential for maintaining body temperature. While some claimed that it was a fast procedure which lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. "The name of the person who tortured me was Somar al Wahid. If the individual survives the initial shock and avoids critical loss of blood during the torture, then they will likely die days later due to infection. The Church used torture to force others to convert to Christianity and because the Church used torture, government authorities used the same means too. Flaying. [10] Lu Xun said the Ming dynasty was begun and ended by flaying.[11]. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. Whilst flaying after death has been historically recorded, typically as a means of debasing the enemys honor and reserved for instances such as criminality, the predominant occurrences took place during life. One Assyrian king recorded sparing some of the people he invaded but only after they shamelessly humbled themselves before him. My skin peeled off. Keelhauling, which dates back in 800 B.C. 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. A criminal was locked inside the device via a door on its side and a fire was then lit underneath, slowly burning. A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of . And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. Shakespeare referenced the practice in The Winters Tale, whilst the legendary fictitious hunter Allan Quartermain experiences a vision of the brutal technique. The Iraq Government, as was anticipated, employed methods to cause dissension among the Assyrians, taking on its side certain individuals with whom Thomson was instructed to carry out Iraq's policy. They described hearing and seeing ghosts talking to them, who would be the ghosts of people theyd killed in battle, says Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes. Here are 20 of the slowest and most painful historical torture methods you would not want to endure: A disputed historical method of inflicting immense pain upon a victim, bamboo torture is a form of punishment wherein bamboo shoots are employed to grow into, and subsequently through, the body of the subjected person. Although disputed for historical veracity, Plutarchs account has nonetheless proved influential. . A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. trailer After enduring an agonizing rupturing of their anal canal, the victim would die unless released. The victims bones would be crushed and would sometimes burst through the skin. Thereafter, the pulped remains of the still-living criminal were strapped to the wheel itself and erected on a pole, akin to a crucifixion, until death. This was Assyriathe first nation to make its military might its central policy and the first nation to torment its enemies with psychological warfare. The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian (c. 1576). They'd cut off the tongues of their captives so their screaming wouldn't be as loud when they were skinned alive. Eventually, it is claimed that the tyrant was himself murdered with the very instrument of his cruelty by Telemachus. The Assyrians, who ruled at the height of their power between Egypt and the Persian Gulf (745-630 BC), are known from historical records to have been cruel and unrelenting . He would then be planted straight on the ground and left for exposure. Then, in the third year, they would be allowed to live with their familiesbefore starting the cycle again. As noted, the length of time before an individual would be impaled varied significantly. Of those, at least 173 were children, 46 were women. If you kissed another mans wife, they would cut off your lower lip with an axe. Death often came slowly to those subjected to the practice, typically succumbing after several days to exhaustion or heart failure, whereafter their body would be left to rot as an example. He would then be lowered very slowly, the pyramid opening his anal orifice and slowly impaling him. Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). Appearing just twice in Norse literature, although popularized subsequently in European mythology, it remains a matter of historic debate whether the blood eagle was a literal procedure or rather a product of allegorical exaggeration not uncommon to the Sagas. Then, he told me to kneel. The Premature Burial, by Antoine Wiertz (c. 1854). Wikimedia Commons. 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. Also, their land was a geographical passage for various armies marching towards their enemies on the way. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. Photo credit: Wikimedia. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A torturous, if infrequent method of historical execution, death by boiling kills an individual by immersing them in a container of blistering liquid. Entering Europe and becoming a popular punishment for collaboration during the Thirty Years War, Vlad III of Wallachias impalement of more than 20,000 individuals earned him his immortality as Dracula. Ernst G. Jung, in his Kleine Kulturgeschichte der Haut ("A short cultural history of the skin"), provides an essay in which he outlines the Neo-Assyrian tradition of flaying human beings. HBO. Instead, they were more frequently attached by rope in order to prolong the torture. 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. . These kind of artifacts are very common. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 18th century in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish (1979). After the collapse of the Akkadians, Assyria gradually emerged as an independent political power around the 14th century BCE. Annemasse. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. Lingchi, known colloquially in the West as death by a thousand cuts, was a ritualistic form of torture prevalent in Imperial China. With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870. The victim would either be rocked or dropped repeatedly onto the device, and the torture would usually be prolonged into several days. 0000001680 00000 n Nearly 3,000 years ago, a nation few remember today swept through the Middle-East. In this method, the victim is stripped naked and tied down to the ground. Impalement was the act of penetrating a sharp stake through the body. The practices represented in depictions include the cutting of the throats of enemies and the decapitation of dead bodies. Whilst some intended to kill, albeit resulting in slow, torturous deaths, others were intended to merely maim and hurt without fatal outcomes. In the 2010s, several Mexican cartel gore videos were leaked to the Internet, depicting flaying used as an extremely graphic torture technique. If our current societies finally consider women as individuals in their own right, this was rarely the case in the past. The city and its houses, from its foundations to its top, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, Seenacherib declared. It was outlined as a naval punishment for sailors in the Rhodian Maritime Code. Torture is unpleasant, as indeed is the intended purpose of the practice. The device is rarely washed, so the victim either dies from impalement or infection. The Assyrians The Appalling Lords of Torture | Lessons from History Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. This nasty torture method uses rats to torment the victim by forcing the rodents to gnaw their way into the humans flesh.