The Assyrians were known for being very barbaric when it came to torturing slaves and prisoners of war. The Assyrian Tragedy. 10. 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. [2] Already from the times of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883859 BC), the practice is displayed and commemorated in both carvings and official royal edicts. The practice is known to have occurred in extreme instances in Japan, where, during the 16th century, the bandit Ishikawa Goemon, along with his entire family, were boiled alive in a giant bathtub as punishment for the failed assassination of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. 0000001458 00000 n Maria Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. He eventually died after two days of being pressed. Centuries later, Tacitus noted Germanic tribes practicing a ritual form of capital punishment, whereby those convicted of cowardice and other shameful vices were buried face down in mud. But if not, the executioner would proceed with the second act, which is braiding the convicts broken body into another wheel. Execution of Thomas Armstrong in 1684 (c. 1698). By the reign of Queen Margaret I of Denmark (r. 1387-1412 CE), female adultery was punished with premature burial (whilst men merely got off with a quick beheading), and until 1689 Russia employed the torturous experience as punishment for the murder of a husband. %PDF-1.4 % The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. In September 1611, Dionysios the Philosopher (or. He was executed by pressing. . Wikimedia Commons. "Assad's forces detained me, my four siblings and other men in the village. This method of torture was executed in several ways, like; Tying the victim to a pole and peeling his facial skin first, or submerging the victim in boiling water before the flaying. The condemned sailors limbs would be tied and he would be repeatedly plunged beneath the ships keel on one side and hoisted up on the other. Unlike immurement, where the victims suffer for days or possibly weeks, those buried alive most commonly die long before dehydration takes effect. When it comes to psychological warfare in the form of sheer brutality, impalement wasn't the only thing the ancient Assyrians turned tothey had other methods of scaring the life out of their neighbors. A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of . At best, an army could hope to break through a citys gates by rushing at it with a log, often while archers fired down on them from below. A torturous, if infrequent method of historical execution, death by boiling kills an individual by immersing them in a container of blistering liquid. The society also used torture to persecute others for their religious affiliations. Skinning was a torture method used in various civilizations throughout history and it involves removing a portion of skin from a human being while still alive (although in some cases it is carried out post-mortem) and trying to keep intact the portion removed. An envoy would ride up to the city walls, knowing the fear the people there already felt, and would promise them that if they bowed down and paid tribute to Assyria, they would be allowed to live. In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. My skin peeled off. 2y.-;!KZ ^i"L0- @8(r;q7Ly&Qq4j|9 The executioner would then use a large wooden spiked wheel to mutilate the convicts body, starting from his legs. 0000001979 00000 n The method was done by tying the victim in a wooden frame and then cutting the flesh in varied, multiple and non-deadly slices. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. wG xR^[ochg`>b$*~ :Eb~,m,-,Y*6X[F=3Y~d tizf6~`{v.Ng#{}}jc1X6fm;'_9 r:8q:O:8uJqnv=MmR 4 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. Kesselring, The English Historical Review (September 2001), Judas Cradle: Torture Device, Medievalist.com, Crime and Punishment in England: An Introductory History, John Briggs, Palgrave Macmillan (1996), The Tudor Law of Treason, John Bellamy, Routledge & Kegan Paul (1979), Execution: A Guide to the Ultimate Penalty, Geoffrey Abbott, Summersdale Publishers (2005), Dispensing Justice: Responses to Crime, Baron David James George Hennessy Windlesham, Clarendon Press, 1987, The Instruments of Torture, Michael Kerrigan, Lyons Press (2001), The Spectacle of Suffering: Executions and the Evolution of Repression from a Preindustrial Metropolis to the European Experience, Pieter C. Spierenburg, Cambridge University Press (1984), Rituals of Retribution: Capital Punishment in Germany 1600-1987, Richard J. Evans, Oxford University Press (May 9, 1996), Torture and Democracy, Darius Rejali, Princeton University Press (2007), The Lives They Lived: The Prisoner, Jonathan Mahler, The New York Times (December 25, 2005), The A to Z of Punishment and Torture: From Amputations to Zero Tolerance, Irene Thompson, Book Guild Publishing (2008), The Walled-up Wife: A Casebook, Mircea Elliade and Alan Dundes, University of Wisconsin Press (1996), The Brief History Of The Brazen Bull, John DeVore, Nov 19, 2016. This excruciating method has been used throughout history ever since then, and probably before as well. And, Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims as part of their human sacrifice rituals, and many more. The passage of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1791, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments, was a direct response to this wartime practice and an attempt to prevent any further applications in the fledgling nation. And, it was described as one of the most cruel and graphic torture methods ever used. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. Brewer (2012), Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion. Lewandowski, Herv. The executioner would not make the victim bleed too much in order to prolong the torture before the final and fatal cut to the throat or heart would be made. Individuals locked into the device would find themselves unable to eat, sleep, or even lie down. endstream endobj 447 0 obj<> endobj 448 0 obj<> endobj 449 0 obj<>stream These people were usually lucky enough to bring their families. At least 500,000 people including women are currently languishing in Assad regime prisons and detention centers, according to opposition sources. n3kGz=[==B0FX'+tG,}/Hh8mW2p[AiAN#8$X?AKHI{!7. The dermatologist Ernst G. Jung says that the main causes of death due to skinning . It involved trapping the naked victim within two, narrow boats joined together with his head, hands, and feet protruding. When the Assyrian king Seenacherib invaded Babylon, he wiped them off the map. Whilst small-scale flaying, although painful, is endurable, large-scale skinning inevitably leads to death. trailer Victory Stele of Eannatum, King of Lagash, Called the Vulture Steleearly dynastic period, c. 2450 bc. A Breast Ripper, on display at a torture museum in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wrttemberg, Germany (c. 15th century). A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of Lachish. The Assyrian empire dominated Mesopotamia and all of the Near East for the first half of the first millennium B.C.E., led by a series of highly ambitious and aggressive warrior kings. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. The boot. For example, Neo-Assyrian kings used it to punish rebel leaders. 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. Keelhauling, taking its name from the Dutch Kielhalen meaning to drag along the keel, was a torturous punishment inflicted upon sailors whilst at sea. The Assyrian Empire started off as a major regional power in Mesopotamia in the second millennium B.C.E., but later grew in size and stature in the first millennium B.C.E. He would then be planted straight on the ground and left for exposure. In order for the method to work, it had to take place in a swamp or somewhere where the boats could lie exposed to the sun. In some instances, mercy might be granted allowing for a swifter death, with the wheelset on fire or the condemned beheaded. The sketch is from a wall relief depicting the Assyrians torturing their captives. 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. Although theres no exact date as to its origins. Its territory covered approximately . "F$H:R!zFQd?r9\A&GrQhE]a4zBgE#H *B=0HIpp0MxJ$D1D, VKYdE"EI2EBGt4MzNr!YK ?%_&#(0J:EAiQ(()WT6U@P+!~mDe!hh/']B/?a0nhF!X8kc&5S6lIa2cKMA!E#dV(kel }}Cq9 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. under the powerful northern Mesopotamian state of Mitanni, Assyria's fortunes revived in the reign of Ashur-uballit I (1365-1330 B.C.). 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. 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. The men of Assyrian army reported experiences that modern psychologists say show wide-spread symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Torture methods are known to be brutal ways of enforcing punishment and squeezing out the truth from perpetrators. 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. Many crimes in Assyria were punished by dismemberment or death. empires.. Assyria was located in the northern part of Mesopotamia, which corresponds to most parts of modern-day Iraq as well as parts of Iran . 5 The Torture Of The Survivors. Any outsider who would gaze upon the monument would know not to mess with Lagash. The king of Urartu, upon hearing the Assyrian army approach, stabbed himself in the chest rather than face them. This form of execution became famous when Giles Corey, an American farmer charged with witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. & 636BC, "Hypatia and pagan philosophical culture in the later fourth century", 1575 Painting: The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flaying&oldid=1142268127, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2017, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2016, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Vasak Mamikonyan, commander-in-chief of the Armenian army during the reign of, In 1314, the brothers Aunay, who were lovers of the daughters-in-law of king. It was believed that Lingchi was a punishment that the accused would have to carry even in the afterlife, where he would not be whole even after death. The early Assyrians were a warrior society. Known to have occurred as early as 2500 BCE, with archaeological evidence in the Sumerian city of Ur depicting the practice, it was also a prominent feature of early imperial China. It was one of the ideas that made Assyria so strong. The nobles and elders of the city came out to me to save their lives, he declared. Using an intricate system of tubes and piping, the screams of the roasting prisoner were transmuted into sounds reminiscent of a raging bull. [00aR/NU(=PpF Under the Habsburgs, the number of strikes inflicted was used as a measure of the severity of criminal conduct by the condemned. "They hung us up from our wrists to the ceilings. Anyone from slaves to prisoners of war could be subject to fear inducing acts of punishment. The latter depicted in the popular television series Vikings, is recorded in the Tale of Ragnars Sons, describing the English kings torture at the hands of Ivar the Boneless. Similarly, and more in line with modern representations, occurred during the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648). The strappado is so damaging that it cannot last for more than an hour without reprieve or risk of killing the subject. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. This is more commonly called skinning. The earliest recorded instances of intentional live burials date from 212 BCE in China, where, during the persecution of subversives by the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, approximately 460 Confucian scholars were buried alive. The victim would suffer hours of agonizing pain as the rats dig a hole through his body, after which he would inevitably die. 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. The carvings show that the actual flaying process might begin at various places on the body, such as at the crus (lower leg), the thighs, or the buttocks. The strappado, also known as corda, is a longstanding, simple, but nonetheless effective method of torture involving tying a victims hands behind their back. Adriana John If our current societies finally consider women as individuals in their own right, this was rarely the case in the past. But some argue that there was a degree of dismemberment, and there were times when the subsequent cuts were carried out after the victims death as a form of public humiliation. The Assyrian soldiers were trained in siege warfare, battle tactics, and hand-to-hand . In the sixth season of the television series, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:11. I flayed many right through my land and draped their skins over the walls, he boasts in one. There were no accurate details of how this method of execution was carried out. 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.. A criminal was locked inside the device via a door on its side and a fire was then lit underneath, slowly burning. The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian (c. 1576). Since the victim would most likely lose consciousness after one or two severe wounds. Sometimes, they got creative. Most famously, bamboo torture was alleged to have been used during World War II by the Japanese Empire against Allied prisoners of war. The victim would be forced to ingest milk and honey, eventually causing diarrhea. Due to the physical harm suffered as a result of keelhauling, with the hull of a ship covered in barnacles, the victim would suffer immense lacerations resulting in major infections and cuts likely leading to their eventual death. 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 hanging. A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used as human food, or for its hide or fur. The "strappado", also known as "corda", is a longstanding, simple, but nonetheless effective method of torture involving tying a victim's hands behind their back. The Assyrian population grew around the region known as Mesopotamia in modern-day Iraq. As a method of both torture and execution, impalement consists of the aggressive penetration of victims by a pole. Life behind a citys walls when the Assyrian army drew close was terrifying. Ancient Torture. They poured boiling water over us, burned us with cigarette butts.". The Assyrians created tablets that showed them torturing their enemies to let the next city know what was coming. There were accounts that described it as a slow and brutal process. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. Attracting bugs and vermin, whilst also inducing diarrhea to lure additional parasites, the victim would be gradually consumed by the animals as they fed upon them. <<7a948a1f817a16499a21d19a53bed43a>]>> Instead, they were more frequently attached by rope in order to prolong the torture. The victims bones would be crushed and would sometimes burst through the skin. Appearing in civilizations around the world, two primary purposes recur as the motivations behind the practice: human sacrifice and criminal punishment. The Ancient Assyrians Flayed Their Enemies To Frighten Them Stone carvings from the time of ancient Assyria around 800 B.C.E. 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. 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. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. One Assyrian King, named Ashurnasirpal II, has left a whole series of these tablets behind, and the descriptions are positively terrifying. Both were commonly inscribed with the Latin phrase abiruo I recant: an objective often achieved due to the eventual breaking of the subjects will. Siege weapons barely existed at this time. 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. Another historic method of execution which served as a form of torture in its own right, the punishment of being hung, drawn, and quartered originated in England during the Middle Ages. 0000001565 00000 n The people of a conquered nation would be spread about the kingdom, living alongside of people from foreign lands instead of their own countrymen to keep them packing together and staging a revolt. Those convicted, commonly murderers and robbers, would be broken by the wheel for their sins, whereupon they were staked out and endured having their limbs broken. A still from S2E4 of Game of Thrones, depicting the historical rat torture. Searing or cutting the flesh from the body was sometimes used as part of the public execution of traitors in medieval Europe. Aside from inflicting agonizing pain, one of the main purposes of this method was to inflict severe humiliation upon the victim. Assyria made sure of it.