Their reputation was so fierce that Jonah fled in fear when God commanded him to speak in Ninevah, Assyria's capital (Jonah 1:1?3).Assyrian soldiers were equipped with the latest weaponry, including barbed arrows, catapults, and siege machines. 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. The ribs are then detached from the backbone. 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. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. 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. and remained in use up to the 19th century. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Royal edicts dating from the time of Ashurnasirpal II glorify the deed, proclaiming I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. 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. [00aR/NU(=PpF Native Americans flayed their captives to make them suffer for as long as possible. And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. 0000000016 00000 n Middle Ages Torture, devices, techniques and facts. The Breast Ripper, also known as the Iron Spider, was an instrument of torture during the latter years of the Middle Ages. I made its destruction more complete than that by a flood. [7][8] Hai Rui suggested that his emperor flay corrupt officials. The ancient Assyrian were among the most ruthless of all ancient warriors. Flaying was both torture and execution, the method was slow and painful like most execution methods. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Torture methods are known to be brutal ways of enforcing punishment and squeezing out the truth from perpetrators. Lingchi, known colloquially in the West as death by a thousand cuts, was a ritualistic form of torture prevalent in Imperial China. 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. Captured soldiers were supposedly tied above infant bamboo shoots, which, over the course of several days, would grow at a rapid pace and pierce the prisoners. Sometimes, they would stripped naked to humiliate them and leave them feeling weak and vulnerable. & 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. x- [ 0}y)7ta>jT7@t`q2&6ZL?_yxg)zLU*uSkSeO4?c. R -25 S>Vd`rn~Y&+`;A4 A9 =-tl`;~p Gp| [`L` "AYA+Cb(R, *T2B- A Breast Ripper, on display at a torture museum in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wrttemberg, Germany (c. 15th century). %PDF-1.4 % Continuing in usage throughout Medieval Europe, most commonly as part of the execution of traitors, flaying became so popular in Imperial China that the Hongwu Emperor ordered the mass flaying of 5,000 women in 1396. 5 The Torture Of The Survivors. Where do we find this stuff? Grisly Ends The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. National Geographic Society (June 18, 2014), The Great Fire of Rome, Stephen Dando-Collins, Da Capo Press (September 2010), Piracy in the Ancient World, H.A. Multiple methods exist to accomplish the violent feat, including transversal or longitudinal impalement and bears striking similarities to bamboo torture. by After llas capture at York in 867, they caused the bloody eagle to be carved on the back of lla, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and then they ripped out his lungs. Instead, they were more frequently attached by rope in order to prolong the torture. Originally used by the Spanish Inquisition and other Holy Orders of the Middle Ages as part of interrogations, including against legendary Italian author Niccol Machiavelli in 1513, the practice endured well into the Modern Age. 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. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. A torturous, if infrequent method of historical execution, death by boiling kills an individual by immersing them in a container of blistering liquid. 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. Keelhauling was an official punishment in the Dutch Navy, although only rarely enforced due to its harsh nature. Assyrian relics also depict two types of executions: piercing through the chest and through the anus. These kind of artifacts are very common. Known to have been used as a punishment prior to the Roman civilization, appearing in ancient Persia, Macedon, and Carthage, Alexander the Great famously order the crucifixions of 2,000 survivors of the siege of Tyre in 332 BCE. The use of torture and mutilation as a fear tactic did not become a more common practice until the Assyrian Empire was built. Flaying, also known as skinning, was a torture method which originated from 883-859 BC and documented in both carvings and official royal edicts. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is 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. The miseries of war: No. xref The stake would be hammered in with a mallet, and it would come out at either his breast, head, or shoulders. One Assyrian king recorded sparing some of the people he invaded but only after they shamelessly humbled themselves before him. At least 500,000 people including women are currently languishing in Assad regime prisons and detention centers, according to opposition sources. The victims had mainly their faces flayed off, while they were still alive. The men of Assyrian army reported experiences that modern psychologists say show wide-spread symptoms of post-traumatic stress. With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870. Some of the accounts detailing Blood Eagle claim that it was used mainly for revenge and sometimes, pure contempt. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. Then the rest would be scattered about the country. Keelhauling, which dates back in 800 B.C. Impalement was the act of penetrating a sharp stake through the body. They laid cities to waste, tortured the survivors, and spread terror everywhere they went. He was known for his harsh punishments upon his enemies, especially those who had betrayed his family and took advantage of the misfortunes of Wallachia. Instead, asphyxiation is the most common cause of death in live burials, with the individual, unless carefully buried, unable to breathe. This nasty torture method uses rats to torment the victim by forcing the rodents to gnaw their way into the humans flesh. Torturers would then use knives to make cuts on their. He eventually died after two days of being pressed. 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. Neros Torches, depicting the martyrdom of a group of early Christians in Rome, by Henryk Siemiradzki (c. 1876). The method can be traced all the way back to 911 BC, where it was practiced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. This usually results in lacerations, infection, and scarring, since the ships hull is covered in barnacles. The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. Before the battle began, people would often be given a chance to surrender. The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) states in its latest report issued today that it has documented 72 torture methods which the Syrian regime continues to practice in its detention centers and military hospitals, calling on the US Congress to pass the Caesar Act to provide accountability after identifying 801 individuals who appeared in As with all human endeavors, we gradually perfected the art of torture over the centuries, refining the necessary tools to inflict the greatest possible pain upon our unfortunate victims. The victim would be forced to ingest milk and honey, eventually causing diarrhea. Ejaz Khan The British Museum. 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. 436 0 obj<>stream In this method, the victim is stripped naked and tied down to the ground. <<7a948a1f817a16499a21d19a53bed43a>]>> 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. Immurement of a nun, as part of a fictitious painting by Vinzenz Katzler (c. 1868). Upon reaching the location, he would be hung almost to the moment of death. Some designs, used for the purposes of gaining information, employed a pulley system, with the individual strapped into a harness and repeatedly lowered onto the tip of the chair to maximize the prolongation of suffering. The Assyrian soldiers were trained in siege warfare, battle tactics, and hand-to-hand . $iU-PGiSit::")SD.@&qk=mUi/6d07*w` As noted, the length of time before an individual would be impaled varied significantly. 0000025862 00000 n . 0 If you think you can handle it, then heres a list of ancient torture methods thatll be sure to make your toes curl. If you kissed another mans wife, they would cut off your lower lip with an axe. The principle of crushing bones and limbs was a popular form of torture in medieval times, mainly because the devices used were simple to design and make. Thats exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers whove been involved in close hand-to-hand combat.. Premature or live burial, as the name suggests, refers to the practice of burying an individual whilst they are still alive. . It should be noted, nevertheless, that the Dutch did not intend the practice to be fatal and allowed for respites in the torture to recover. 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. Then, he told me to kneel. Centuries before the United States of America would adopt the use of sleep deprivation and enforced standing to entice confessions and acquire intelligence, the Inquisition developed two ruthless mechanisms to achieve the same end: the Heretics Fork and Neck Traps. The boot, or 'Spanish boot' as it was sometimes called, was like a rack for the legs which would be placed in tightly fitted iron or wooden boots. Known to have existed since the earliest days of the Qin dynasty, it became a popular practice during the reign of Emperor Tianzuo of the Liao dynasty and more so under the Song. Every Assyrian man, from the poorest to the richest, was required to serve in the army. Assyria emerged as a territorial state in the 14th century B.C. (AFP/GETTY IMAGES). The executioner would then use a large wooden spiked wheel to mutilate the convicts body, starting from his legs. They seized my feet and said: If it pleases you, kill! 5X9&,6a4'r3n[?Ve:&gFiM lv_EVUW[!cq\'C+Czgzqq/6HwCA wVg/Bpm#*2)}my~MTeY NP;w4SvTNY6qo(W|EA-x*^sKK.y0Es}nCas -KosEI`uz}hZNOtDjd-K/-t {)M]4R,!X^f~4EE?TuMR)lGGw#~P 67SKEvs *!2Fg2$d,NX7E5_O[*b,@2B@r5[*X>l4[-eKfv)=Jf,vv]},.q@cUSU}Wz_b=LUB"wixJ uul|6pj~J&HlF%: ^ , He would be left to float on a pond, with his accumulated feces and honey-covered body attracting insects which would eat and breed within his exposed flesh. This form of execution became famous when Giles Corey, an American farmer charged with witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. He would then be planted straight on the ground and left for exposure. 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. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. Vikings discovering North America. 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. The Ancient Assyrians Flayed Their Enemies To Frighten Them Stone carvings from the time of ancient Assyria around 800 B.C.E. @#2:0D)5@SH(*@6C The medieval Europe used it as part of the public execution of traitors. Using this method of torture would require the victim to be stripped and suspended above the device. Adriana John trailer 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 Assyrian Tragedy. In at least one case, an Assyrian king made the women lift their skirts over their heads and march blindly after their captors. 0000001680 00000 n Wikimedia Commons. 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. HyTSwoc [5laQIBHADED2mtFOE.c}088GNg9w '0 Jb Although theres no exact date as to its origins. Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, is a method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body. 10, The Strappado, by Jacques Callot (c. 1633). When I said I was from Hama, he cursed my mother. 10. Through the midst of that city I dug canals, I flooded its site with water, and the very foundations thereof I destroyed. [1] Hypothermia is possible, as skin provides natural insulation and is essential for maintaining body temperature. The ultimately fatal fires were started from the feet, in order to prolong the suffering for those so condemned. In September 1611, Dionysios the Philosopher (or. Equally, their hands and feet might be tied together to make balancing even harder or oil poured over the chair. In the 2010s, several Mexican cartel gore videos were leaked to the Internet, depicting flaying used as an extremely graphic torture technique. Behind them, slave masters were always watching, ready to beat anyone who slacked. A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of . Unknown to him, she was sacrificed, with the priest appearing during the festival dinner wearing her skin as part of the ritual. 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. Frequently using oil, tar, or tallow, various cultures and civilizations spanning Europe and Asia are known to have employed boiling as a means of inflicting great pain upon condemned persons. Nevertheless, the ancient Roman Candles signify the first organized persecutions of Christians under the Romans. HWF}Wc/ v2`L&_Tu1M*$qt{o_|eo? 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. And, it was described as one of the most cruel and graphic torture methods ever used. Experts from conquered countries would be sent into the heart of the nation, where they would be put to work building palaces, temples, and wonders. 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. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. The practices represented in depictions include the cutting of the throats of enemies and the decapitation of dead bodies. The early Assyrians were a warrior society. 0000001205 00000 n Their artistic propaganda relishes every detail of torture, massacre, battlefield executions and human displacement that made Assyria the dominant power of the Middle East from about 900 to. Activists are now calling on Congress to place more sanctions . 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. There are also records of people flayed after death, generally as a means of debasing the corpse of a prominent enemy or criminal, sometimes related to religious beliefs (e.g. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. One Assyrian King, named Ashurnasirpal II, has left a whole series of these tablets behind, and the descriptions are positively terrifying. Their torturers would continuously hurl verbal abuse at the prisoners, al-Drubi recounted. The Assyrian empire was located in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. 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. 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. 0000001458 00000 n Wikimedia Commons. Used most commonly as a punishment for crimes against the state, appearing in civilizations and cultures around the world as among the harshest means of capital punishment, contrary to immediate assumptions impalement did not render a swift death. These kind of artifacts are very common. 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. Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org. 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. 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. This is a slow and painful execution, with causes of death ranging from blood loss, hypothermia, or infections. Executions have often served as a kind of revenge, a way of inflicting pain and mental torture on the convict. 0000002778 00000 n In 1303, the treasury of Westminster Abbey was robbed while holding a large sum of money belonging to King Edward I. Trapping a condemned prisoner, the individual would be force-fed milk and honey as well as coated in the foodstuffs. During the American Revolutionary War, both Loyalists and Patriots were recorded as inflicting the punishment upon their opponents. Starting with the dragging of the individual, fastened to a hurdle drawn by horse, from the site of imprisonment to their place of execution, along the route he would be pelted with rotten food and excrement by the public. It shows the decapitated heads of the enemy Ummite soldiers being carried away by vultures. wn The Blood Eagle is a haunting form of execution used by the Vikings. The people seem to have been a bit squeamish about enacting these lawsbut they made sure they did it. Wikimedia Commons. A military culture. The method was reborn during the modern age across Latin America, with its use recorded under the military dictatorships of Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. He used rat torture, along with other methods, to punish his political enemies and sexually assault his prisoners. Scenes of similar punishments can be seen on excavated Assyrian materials. Assyrians can be undoubtedly termed as the Nazis of the biblical world. [citation needed]. Make peace with me and come out to me! the envoy called out. Wikimedia Commons. If the king was merciful, they would be sent to a ruined kingdom on the outskirts of the nation that would be forced to rebuild. Commonly resulting in the dislocation of the arms and shoulders, the longer-term effects of the method are less visible, causing lifelong nerve, ligament, and tendon damage leading to potential paralysis. Assyrian art shows a parade of their slaves chained to large stones, being forced to drag massive rocks like mules. Scaphism, also known as the boats, is a disputed method of Persian torture and execution. [10] Lu Xun said the Ming dynasty was begun and ended by flaying.[11]. A notable figure who enjoyed this method of torture was the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad III. He wrote, I hung the heads of the kings upon the shoulders of their nobles, and with singing and music I paraded.. Photo credit: Wikimedia. The device is rarely washed, so the victim either dies from impalement or infection. 0000008971 00000 n 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. Its territory covered approximately . 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. is known as the Neo-Assyrian period, during which the empire reached its zenith. Wikimedia Commons. 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. 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 dermatologist Ernst G. Jung says that the main causes of death due to skinning . "The nobles and elders of the city came out to me to save their lives," he declared. 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. Execution of Thomas Armstrong in 1684 (c. 1698). The fragment above is part of the Stele of Vultures. Life under the threat of Assyrian was horrifyingfor the Assyrians as well as their victims. Assyrian torture method. While some claimed that it was a fast procedure which lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. As a result, the mechanism was specifically designed to mutilate and destroy the most visible feminine attribute in retribution for the alleged unwomanly crimes: the breasts. During Mesopotamian times, wars were what divided ruling periods. The Assyrian population grew around the region known as Mesopotamia in modern-day Iraq. It involved trapping the naked victim within two, narrow boats joined together with his head, hands, and feet protruding. The Church used torture to force others to convert to Christianity and because the Church used torture, government authorities used the same means too. The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian (c. 1576). Whilst small-scale flaying, although painful, is endurable, large-scale skinning inevitably leads to death. The city and its houses, from its foundations to its top, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, Seenacherib declared. Scaphism was a Persian method of execution. endstream endobj 452 0 obj<>/W[1 1 1]/Type/XRef/Index[57 377]>>stream A Tudor woodcut print of Keelhauling (c. 1485 1603). 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. Made from iron and heated to ensure an easier tear, the spikes of the ripper would be attached to a convicted womans breast. Men had to right to murder adulterous wives. Ancient Torture. Using a heated vessel to contain the vermin close to the human, the rodent, growing increasingly desperate to escape its own suffering, is compelled to burrow into the flesh of the victim. [2] Already from the times of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883859 BC), the practice is displayed and commemorated in both carvings and official royal edicts. Murderers were handed over to the victims family, who were free to do with them as they willed. The nobles and elders of the city came out to me to save their lives, he declared. Public Domain. The method was done by breaking the criminals bones and bludgeoning them to death. Adriana John Keelhauling, taking its name from the Dutch Kielhalen meaning to drag along the keel, was a torturous punishment inflicted upon sailors whilst at sea. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. While imprisoned, al-Drubi suffered many forms of abuse. Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). Revived, castrated, disemboweled, before being finally beheaded, his body would subsequently be chopped into four pieces and displayed at prominent locales. Accordingly, depending on the whims of the torturer, weights might be added to the legs of the victim to hasten their demise. It had an iron-capped ram that swung from chains, letting it crush its way through enemy walls like never before. The brazen bull, also known as the Sicilian Bull, was a disputed torture device allegedly stemming from Ancient Greece, specifically the city-state of Akragas. Eventually, under pressure from Western nations undergoing their own liberalizations of violent punishments, in 1905, as part of widespread revisions of the Chinese penal code, lingchi was formally abolished as a criminal sentence. marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, although a last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, attempted to rescue Appearing repeatedly throughout modern popular film, television, and literature, rat torture is an especially cruel method of punishment. This article has been adapted from its original source. 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. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. I don't think torturers can be human. In the past, rulers also included these extra elements of punishment to turn executions into spectacles. Here are our sources: Japanese Torture Techniques, BBC (August 8, 2005), The Rise of the Dutch Republic, John Lothrop Motley, Bickers & Son (1883), The Pictorial History of England, George Lillie Craik and Charles McFarlane, Nabu Press (2010), Medieval Punishments: An Illustrated History of Torture, William Andrews, Skyhorse Publishing (2013), The Big Book of Pain: Torture & Punishment Through History, Mark P. Donnelly and Daniel Diehl, History Press Limited (2011), Amazing True Stories of Execution Blunders: Ghastly Blunders on the Scaffold, Geoffrey Abbott, Summersdale Publishing (2006), A Draft of the 1531 Acte for Poysoning', K.J. In contrast to common depiction, most crucifixions did not involve the nailing of the victims hands or feet to the cross. The victim would either be rocked or dropped repeatedly onto the device, and the torture would usually be prolonged into several days.