The article "Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death" by Erika Bleibtreu gives an insight into the ways of the Assyrian military campaigns and battles. 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. His writing also appears on a number of other sites, including The Onion's StarWipe and Cracked.com. Before the battle began, people would often be given a chance to surrender. 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. The Assyrian empire was located in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. [00aR/NU(=PpF wn 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 . The sailor would be tied to a rope that encircled the underside of the ship, whereupon, being thrown overboard, they would be dragged underneath the ship and along the keel to emerge on the other side. 12 Torturous Methods of Execution in History that Will Make You Squirm Rat torture was first documented in 17th century Europe during the Dutch Revolt, with the technique being used against captured prisoners. 10, The Strappado, by Jacques Callot (c. 1633). 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. Were the Assyrians particularly brutal? - Quora Assyrians can be undoubtedly termed as the Nazis of the biblical world. $iU-PGiSit::")SD.@&qk=mUi/6d07*w` Assyria made sure of it. Scenes of similar punishments can be seen on excavated Assyrian materials. 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. Christ on the Cross, by Carl Bloch (c. 1870). Where do we find this stuff? Siege weapons barely existed at this time. Scaphism was a Persian method of execution. 0000001458 00000 n Wikimedia Commons. Ejaz Khan The Assyrians were known for being very barbaric when it came to torturing slaves and prisoners of war. 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. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. Keelhauling was an official punishment in the Dutch Navy, although only rarely enforced due to its harsh nature. In the past, rulers also included these extra elements of punishment to turn executions into spectacles. Revived, castrated, disemboweled, before being finally beheaded, his body would subsequently be chopped into four pieces and displayed at prominent locales. Lewandowski, Herv. The miseries of war: No. 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. Whilst some intended to kill, albeit resulting in slow, torturous deaths, others were intended to merely maim and hurt without fatal outcomes. Flaying was both torture and execution, the method was slow and painful like most execution methods. 0000008971 00000 n The ribs are then detached from the backbone. And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. The most recent confirmed case occurred in New Jersey in 2010, when David Wax threatened a kidnap victim with rat torture. Mutilation/Fear | Ancient Mesopotamian Warfare The British Museum. Some crimes were dealt with in savage ways. Assyrian torture method. I flayed many right through my land and draped their skins over the walls, he boasts in one. In the first year, they would build roads, bridges, and great projects to build up their strength and the strength of the empire. Adriana John Sometimes, the Assyrian army didnt stop at killing their enemies. 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. An illustration from the French newspaper Le Monde Illustr, depicting the torture and execution of a French missionary in China by lingchi (c. 1858). Some of the accounts detailing Blood Eagle claim that it was used mainly for revenge and sometimes, pure contempt. The stake would be hammered in with a mallet, and it would come out at either his breast, head, or shoulders. The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. For example, Neo-Assyrian kings used it to punish rebel leaders. It had an iron-capped ram that swung from chains, letting it crush its way through enemy walls like never before. The fragment above is part of the Stele of Vultures. 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 a method of both torture and execution, impalement consists of the aggressive penetration of victims by a pole. Similarly, and more in line with modern representations, occurred during the Dutch Revolt (1568-1648). Tied to a wooden frame in a public place, small pieces of flesh would be slowly cut from the body. From here, he was transferred to the Hama military airport, where he was beaten upon arrival, stripped naked, interrogated and tortured. Differing from immurement by both method and intent, those subjected to premature burial are interred with the purpose of execution, and, in contrast to the entombing of persons within walls, the victims die far quicker when buried. The victim would be repeatedly fed and covered with the honey mixture in order to prolong the torture. 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. This article has been adapted from its original source. The executioner would then use a large wooden spiked wheel to mutilate the convicts body, starting from his legs. Several variations of the device existed, reflecting its use in a number of circumstances. 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. 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. Wikimedia Commons. If our current societies finally consider women as individuals in their own right, this was rarely the case in the past. The horrors and the guilt of murdering and torturing innocent people wreaked havoc on their psyches. This form of execution became famous when Giles Corey, an American farmer charged with witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. 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 Ancient Greeks used to punish people by cooking them inside a huge bronze bull. A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. During Mesopotamian times, wars were what divided ruling periods. 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. Torture methods are known to be brutal ways of enforcing punishment and squeezing out the truth from perpetrators. The Assyrians were known for being very barbaric when it came to torturing slaves and prisoners of war. Both were commonly inscribed with the Latin phrase abiruo I recant: an objective often achieved due to the eventual breaking of the subjects will. The Assyrians The Appalling Lords of Torture | Lessons from History Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Equally, their hands and feet might be tied together to make balancing even harder or oil poured over the chair. Public Domain. The victims bones would be crushed and would sometimes burst through the skin. The Assyrian Tragedy. 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. Wardah Hajra Impalement - Wikipedia 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. Instead, asphyxiation is the most common cause of death in live burials, with the individual, unless carefully buried, unable to breathe. Today, the term Roman Candle refers to a type of Chinese firework that became popular in Western Europe during the Italian Renaissance. 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. 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.. 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. These showed them skinning their victims alive, blinding them, and impaling them on stakes. This is more commonly called skinning. 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. . He would then be planted straight on the ground and left for exposure. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. Wikimedia Commons. 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. Any outsider who would gaze upon the monument would know not to mess with Lagash. Executions have often served as a kind of revenge, a way of inflicting pain and mental torture on the convict. Adriana John The Assyrian Tragedy Upon reaching the location, he would be hung almost to the moment of death. depict warriors methodically removing the skin from prisoners' bodies, marking them as one of the first cultures to partake in the brutal torture. Assyrian national history, as it has been preserved for us in inscriptions and pictures, consists almost solely of military campaigns and battles. Flaying, also known as skinning, was a torture method which originated from 883-859 BC and documented in both carvings and official royal edicts. The women had it even worse. }U|m?2H:3^`t5`Sh;V"DV;m -6A:'O!K2dO'qX,VAUu5GqMQ=2@nDA`N`6u90]p*1+Js. Utilizing a simple design, the victim would be strapped atop the chair and forced to support themselves solely with their legs for an indefinite period of time. "They hung us up from our wrists to the ceilings. He was kind of famous among us as we endured much torture from his hand," he added. 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. 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. Usually, a cage filled with rats would be placed on top of the restrained victims stomach. Although people think that torture is an effective method, because of Applebaum's successful use of logos, diction . 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. This torture method apparently had a long tradition in Scandinavia and a couple of direct accounts were mentioned in old skaldic poems. It has been suggested, without corroboration, that these candles were used as decorations during formal parties held by Nero. Assyrian Empire - National Geographic Society Flaying, also known as skinning, is a method of torture (and often execution) whereby the skin of the victim is gradually removed from the body in a precise fashion. A pillar of heads I erected in front of the city.. But it was supposedly shattered due to her divinity. Wikimedia Commons. Assyrian relics also depict two types of executions: piercing through the chest and through the anus. All of Assyria was subject to their resettlement policy, which uprooted whole families and moved them across the country. It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know. 0000001680 00000 n In the 2010s, several Mexican cartel gore videos were leaked to the Internet, depicting flaying used as an extremely graphic torture technique. . 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. 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. 0000006055 00000 n 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. Lingchi, also known as death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from around 900 AD until it was banned in 1905. However, a 2008 Mythbusters investigation verified that bamboo shoots can penetrate several inches of ballistic gelatin (comparable in strength to the human skin) in less than three days. Wikimedia Commons. Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he had designed and built for Phalaris, by Pierre Woeiriot (c. 1532-1562). 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. Jung provides some examples of this triumphant rhetoric. Appearing in civilizations around the world, two primary purposes recur as the motivations behind the practice: human sacrifice and criminal punishment. Middle Ages Torture, devices, techniques and facts. "The name of the person who tortured me was Somar al Wahid. Forced to eat under pain of physical torture, Mithridates was drenched with a mixture of milk and honey. The king of Urartu, upon hearing the Assyrian army approach, stabbed himself in the chest rather than face them. 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. . Wikimedia Commons. 10 Brilliant And Brutal Methods Of Ancient Psychological Warfare Through the midst of that city I dug canals, I flooded its site with water, and the very foundations thereof I destroyed. 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. Syrian Man Reveals Worst Torture Methods Used by the Regime 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. After several centuries of obscurity and even loss of independence from around 1400 B.C. Native Americans flayed their captives to make them suffer for as long as possible. 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. 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. Regarding the latter, it has been claimed the Vestal Virgins of Rome faced immurement should they break their vows of chastity as a trial by ordeal to prove devotion. They invented the battering ram, a device that would have seemed completely unstoppable in their time. Wikimedia Commons. 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. Vikings discovering North America. The purpose of the stele is to display the power and ferocity of the Lagashistes.