assyrian torture methods assyrian torture methods

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. She refused to renounce her faith and was sentenced to death by being bludgeoned on a spiked wheel. 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. Grisly Ends The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. wG xR^[ochg`>b$*~ :Eb~,m,-,Y*6X[F=3Y~d tizf6~`{v.Ng#{}}jc1X6fm;'_9 r:8q:O:8uJqnv=MmR 4 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. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. A still from S2E4 of Game of Thrones, depicting the historical rat torture. The men worked in a three-year cycle. 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 . 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. 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 former, a bi-pronged fork attached to a belt around the victims neck, unflinchingly secured the angle of the head. Since the victim would most likely lose consciousness after one or two severe wounds. And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. endstream endobj 452 0 obj<>/W[1 1 1]/Type/XRef/Index[57 377]>>stream Behind them, slave masters were always watching, ready to beat anyone who slacked. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. Vikings discovering North America. Ancient Torture. 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. 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. 0000005655 00000 n Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org. A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. The society also used torture to persecute others for their religious affiliations. They laid cities to waste, tortured the survivors, and spread terror everywhere they went. There were accounts that described it as a slow and brutal process. Anyone from slaves to prisoners of war could be subject to fear inducing acts of punishment. 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. The convicted would be taken to a public stage and tied on the floor. The captives I have killed by the sword and flung on the dung heap. Assyrian society was entirely military, with men obliged to fight in the army at any time. 0000002742 00000 n 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. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. . When I did not, he hit me with a timing belt. Its territory covered approximately . When they came to your town, the men at the gates were vicious and battle-hardened. But if not, the executioner would proceed with the second act, which is braiding the convicts broken body into another wheel. xref Scenes of similar punishments can be seen on excavated Assyrian materials. Native Americans flayed their captives to make them suffer for as long as possible. by 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. The British Museum. "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 & 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. Eventually, it is claimed that the tyrant was himself murdered with the very instrument of his cruelty by Telemachus. 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. Wardah Hajra 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. This usually results in lacerations, infection, and scarring, since the ships hull is covered in barnacles. (e.g. Assyrian torture method. The Assyrians The Appalling Lords of Torture | Lessons from History Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Ironically, in a reversal of fortunes for the Babylonians, Darius I of Persia would later impale 3,000 of their own in vengeance. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. 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. 0000001680 00000 n A criminal was locked inside the device via a door on its side and a fire was then lit underneath, slowly burning. . A notable figure who enjoyed this method of torture was the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad III. The strappado is so damaging that it cannot last for more than an hour without reprieve or risk of killing the subject. 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. When I said I was from Hama, he cursed my mother. Decreeing that Mithridates should be put to death in boats, two were framed exactly to fit his body to prevent escape. And the lungs would be ripped out and spread over the ribs, making them look like wings. While imprisoned, al-Drubi suffered many forms of abuse. Either way, torture will never NOT be disturbing, so readers should be warned that this list is not for the squeamish or faint of heart. 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. 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. The ribs are then detached from the backbone. . The cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the tearing out of the heart were all standard punishments in this. 0 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. Even if he gets lowered down slowly in order for his body to avoid the barnacles, he would still suffer from possible drowning or a head trauma. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. This was Assyriathe first nation to make its military might its central policy and the first nation to torment its enemies with psychological warfare. Victory Stele of Eannatum, King of Lagash, Called the Vulture Steleearly dynastic period, c. 2450 bc. The executioner would then use a large wooden spiked wheel to mutilate the convicts body, starting from his legs. 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. An illustration of execution by breaking wheel in Augsburg, Bavaria (c. 1586). 0000006055 00000 n 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. Activists are now calling on Congress to place more sanctions . An illustrated depiction of the heretics fork in practice. 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. He eventually died after two days of being pressed. 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%: ^ , The boot. In the ancient Far East, where there were large states peopled by many different ethnicities, leaders demonstrated their might by inventing ingenious new tortures and agonizing methods of execution as a way to keep the population obedient. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870. 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 . This is often referred to as flaying alive. 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. Corey refused to enter a plea and only asked for more weights during the torture. Impalement was the act of penetrating a sharp stake through the body. 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. For example, Neo-Assyrian kings used it to punish rebel leaders. N')].uJr It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know. That meant being skinned alive, having noses and ears chopped off, and whatever torments they could imagine. The victim would be repeatedly fed and covered with the honey mixture in order to prolong the torture. "Assad's forces detained me, my four siblings and other men in the village. Although people think that torture is an effective method, because of Applebaum's successful use of logos, diction . Maria Wikimedia Commons. Among the alleged cruelties bestowed upon these religious minorities was the so-called Roman Candle. %%EOF Nourished by the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the cities of Mesopotamia Greek for "the land between two rivers"flourished from the 20th century to the end of the seventh century B.C.E. After the arrest and interrogation of 48 monks, three of them, including the subprior and sacrist, were found guilty of the robbery and flayed. All he left behind was a message, boasting of how far hed gone to decimate them. startxref Wikimedia Commons. During Mesopotamian times, wars were what divided ruling periods. Exclusive: Syrian regime is being accused of implementing more than 72 torture methods, including crucifixion, rape, and eye-gouging. Others went further. G*0 oAsvHkj]YK Ay$^i-:Gb&@SubuQ~ay@$": 1O4=z+088r"YWv;V?Ry6UR=r? Flaying, also known colloquially as skinning, is a method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body. 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. to deny an afterlife); sometimes the skin is used, again for deterrence, esoteric/ritualistic purposes, etc. 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. From his capital at Ashur, Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the rich farming . The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. "The name of the person who tortured me was Somar al Wahid. The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. [citation needed]. If a man was caught with another man, the law said, they shall turn him into a eunuch. Adultery was punishable by death. 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. The method can be traced all the way back to 911 BC, where it was practiced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. [4] At St Michael & All Angels' Church in Copford in Essex, England, it is claimed that human skin was found attached to an old door, though evidence seems elusive. The Church used torture to force others to convert to Christianity and because the Church used torture, government authorities used the same means too. In the sixth season of the television series, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:11. 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. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. The method was done by tying the victim in a wooden frame and then cutting the flesh in varied, multiple and non-deadly slices. This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. His prolonged exposure and his flesh rotting away due to his own filth and the insects devouring him would eventually lead to his horrifying demise. 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. Brewer (2012), Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion. Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). Wikimedia Commons. Every Assyrian man, from the poorest to the richest, was required to serve in the army. Crucifixion, an ancient method of capital punishment, is perhaps the most famous means of torture in history due to its association with the Christian narrative of Jesus. 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. The Assyrians, though, had some of the first siege weapons in the world. 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. 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. A ritualized method of torture and execution, the Viking practice of the "blood eagle" stands among the most brutal and controversial of historical tortures. 1p18i!J 8? Both were commonly inscribed with the Latin phrase abiruo I recant: an objective often achieved due to the eventual breaking of the subjects will. Whilst some intended to kill, albeit resulting in slow, torturous deaths, others were intended to merely maim and hurt without fatal outcomes. Scaphism, also known as the boats, is a disputed method of Persian torture and execution. Designed during the reign of the tyrant Phalaris (r. 570-554 BCE) by Perillos of Athens, the bull, as recorded by Diodorus Siculus, was supposedly made from bronze but hollowed out and with a door on one side. 0000001458 00000 n Recorded in England, beginning in 1531 during the reign of Henry VIII, being boiled alive became the legally prescribed method of capital punishment for those convicted of high treason or murder by poison. 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. 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. Centuries later, the Roman Emperor Hadrian reputedly used such a device to torture and kill Christians. Wikimedia Commons. 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. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. "Torture and the . endstream endobj 435 0 obj<>>>/LastModified(D:20030926134002)/MarkInfo<>>> endobj 437 0 obj[438 0 R 439 0 R 440 0 R] endobj 438 0 obj<>>> endobj 439 0 obj<>>> endobj 440 0 obj<>>> endobj 441 0 obj<>/Font<>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC]/ExtGState<>>>/StructParents 0>> endobj 442 0 obj<> endobj 443 0 obj[/ICCBased 449 0 R] endobj 444 0 obj<> endobj 445 0 obj<> endobj 446 0 obj<>stream Appearing in civilizations around the world, two primary purposes recur as the motivations behind the practice: human sacrifice and criminal punishment. 0000002778 00000 n Aside from inflicting agonizing pain, one of the main purposes of this method was to inflict severe humiliation upon the victim. A pillar of heads I erected in front of the city.. This article has been adapted from its original source. 4. V)gB0iW8#8w8_QQj@&A)/g>'K t;\ $FZUn(4T%)0C&Zi8bxEB;PAom?W= The namesake for this torture was the Christian martyr, Saint Catherine. The method was done by breaking the criminals bones and bludgeoning them to death. Life behind a citys walls when the Assyrian army drew close was terrifying. The Breast Ripper, also known as the Iron Spider, was an instrument of torture during the latter years of the Middle Ages. Using an intricate system of tubes and piping, the screams of the roasting prisoner were transmuted into sounds reminiscent of a raging bull. The king of Urartu, upon hearing the Assyrian army approach, stabbed himself in the chest rather than face them. 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. 0000008971 00000 n Wikimedia Commons. Today, the term Roman Candle refers to a type of Chinese firework that became popular in Western Europe during the Italian Renaissance. 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. The men of Assyrian army reported experiences that modern psychologists say show wide-spread symptoms of post-traumatic stress. The strappado, also known as corda, is a longstanding, simple, but nonetheless effective method of torture involving tying a victims hands behind their back. Made from iron and heated to ensure an easier tear, the spikes of the ripper would be attached to a convicted womans breast. Execution of Thomas Armstrong in 1684 (c. 1698). In the case of very crime for which there is penalty of the cutting-off of ear or nose, the law said, as it is written it shall be carried out.. In the 2010s, several Mexican cartel gore videos were leaked to the Internet, depicting flaying used as an extremely graphic torture technique. I made its destruction more complete than that by a flood. 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. February 1934. 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. 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 10 Times Britain Was Successfully Invaded, Top 10 Must-See Recent Genre-Defying Horrors, The Listverse Compendium Of 113 Halloween Horrors, 10 Men Suspected Of Being Jack The Ripper (Who, 10 Ways Being Attractive Can Work Against You, 10 People Who Willingly Returned To Being Prisoners, Bizarre Police Vehicles That Are Actually Being Used, 8 Dark Facts About Being Single, And Why You Really, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, eat their own excrement and drink their own urine, necklaces with their kings heads on them, 10 Forgotten Battles That Changed World History, 10 Stages in the History of Drinking Parties, 10 Letters From Everyday People On The Other Side Of History, 10 Eccentric Ways To Obtain A Medal Of Honor. A 1593 engraved illustration of vertical impalement; author unknown. As a method of both torture and execution, impalement consists of the aggressive penetration of victims by a pole. Medium.com, Vestal Virgins: Chaste keepers of the flame, Melissa Dowling, Biblical Archaeological Society (2001), Rethinking Nero, BYROBERT DRAPER. 436 0 obj<>stream 0000025862 00000 n 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. You are here: Home Ancient Punishment Ancient Torture Illustration of Assyrians Torturing Their Captives. 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. 0000003018 00000 n Every young man was expected to train as a warrior and be ready to fight. Some of the accounts detailing Blood Eagle claim that it was used mainly for revenge and sometimes, pure contempt. @#2:0D)5@SH(*@6C Assyrian relics also depict two types of executions: piercing through the chest and through the anus. 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. The dangerous men who fought against Assyria were sometimes given a chance to redeem themselves. "They hung us up from our wrists to the ceilings. Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content, A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces guards IS suspects in north-east Syria. The victim would suffer hours of agonizing pain as the rats dig a hole through his body, after which he would inevitably die. The period from the ninth century to the end of the seventh century B.C. Life under the threat of Assyrian was horrifyingfor the Assyrians as well as their victims. Instituted as the legal penalty for men convicted of high treason in 1352, although existing unofficially since the reign of Henry III, the condemned man would suffer a litany of successive violations, humiliations, and pains before his eventual death. Every person watching their chariots approach would know that, compared to the fate the Assyrian army brought, death would be a relief. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. The breaking wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel, was a method of torture that featured as part of public executions in Europe between the start of the Middle Ages until the Early Modern Period.