assyrian torture methods

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. A military culture. Murderers were handed over to the victims family, who were free to do with them as they willed. But if not, the executioner would proceed with the second act, which is braiding the convicts broken body into another wheel. 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. The victims bones would be crushed and would sometimes burst through the skin. 0000003095 00000 n 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 In the first year, they would build roads, bridges, and great projects to build up their strength and the strength of the empire. Aside from inflicting agonizing pain, one of the main purposes of this method was to inflict severe humiliation upon the victim. 0000001622 00000 n In the second year, they would go out to war. In this method, the victim is stripped naked and tied down to the ground. It is as gory and bloodcurdling a history as we know. The Assyrians, though, had some of the first siege weapons in the world. The horrors and the guilt of murdering and torturing innocent people wreaked havoc on their psyches. 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. The use of rats in this manner is believed to have originated in Europe, with two variants of the practice emerging concurrently. Torture methods are known to be brutal ways of enforcing punishment and squeezing out the truth from perpetrators. The period from the ninth century to the end of the seventh century B.C. 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. 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 Iraq Government, as was anticipated, employed methods to cause dissension among the Assyrians, taking on its side certain individuals with whom Thomson was instructed to carry out Iraq's policy. The men of Assyrian army reported experiences that modern psychologists say show wide-spread symptoms of post-traumatic stress. She was subsequently executed by decapitation. These kind of artifacts are very common. 0000001500 00000 n They seized my feet and said: If it pleases you, kill! 434 19 A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of . 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. In September 1611, Dionysios the Philosopher (or. They brought us to the military base in the village of Dayr al-Shimal in western Hama, where they beat us with plastic tubes," he told Anadolu Agency. The ultimately fatal fires were started from the feet, in order to prolong the suffering for those so condemned. Also, their land was a geographical passage for various armies marching towards their enemies on the way. As a method of both torture and execution, impalement consists of the aggressive penetration of victims by a pole. 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. When I said I was from Hama, he cursed my mother. Life behind a citys walls when the Assyrian army drew close was terrifying. Activists are now calling on Congress to place more sanctions . xbbc`b``3 A-` 4-r 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. 0000001020 00000 n Under the Habsburgs, the number of strikes inflicted was used as a measure of the severity of criminal conduct by the condemned. They pioneered the use of terror as a weaponand they made the lives of their enemies a living horror story. This was the first country to make military service mandatory for every male citizen, no matter who he was. @#2:0D)5@SH(*@6C 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. . Instead, they were more frequently attached by rope in order to prolong the torture. Adriana John Keelhauling was an official punishment in the Dutch Navy, although only rarely enforced due to its harsh nature. His website is regularly updated with everything he writes. This is often referred to as flaying alive. *H{kI)-wr`-4'DL Xoi)0Mo)ls}T[3 t0p`CF/.Dr7!aLpjBO*\NbaosG.^({B$JGfWtf}-GQEN]3;TFyebpn$D. In many recorded instances, the breast would be ripped clean off, along with a substantial portion of the upper torso, resulting in near-instant death. 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. At least two individuals, Richard Roose and Margaret Davy, in 1531 and 1542 respectively, are known to have suffered this particular fate before abandonment under Edward VI in 1547. Assyrian national history, as it has been preserved for us in inscriptions and pictures, consists almost solely of military campaigns and battles. February 1934. 0000001205 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. He used rat torture, along with other methods, to punish his political enemies and sexually assault his prisoners. [citation needed]. 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. The Babylonian destruction of their capital city Nineveh in 612 B.C. When I did not, he hit me with a timing belt. Gradually, his body was consumed after seventeen days of being eaten from both within and without. In the 2010s, several Mexican cartel gore videos were leaked to the Internet, depicting flaying used as an extremely graphic torture technique. Wikimedia Commons. 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. 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. This is a slow and painful execution, with causes of death ranging from blood loss, hypothermia, or infections. As the Assyrian Empire grew, they built a standing army. A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. [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. Dermatologist Ernst G. Jung notes that the typical causes of death due to flaying are shock, critical loss of blood or other body fluids, hypothermia, or infections, and that the actual death is estimated to occur from a few hours up to a few days after the flaying. Many crimes in Assyria were punished by dismemberment or death. Usually, a cage filled with rats would be placed on top of the restrained victims stomach. The method can be traced all the way back to 911 BC, where it was practiced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Made from iron and heated to ensure an easier tear, the spikes of the ripper would be attached to a convicted womans breast. A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used as human food, or for its hide or fur. While some claimed that it was a fast procedure which lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. 0000002742 00000 n Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). The victim would . Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso.It was particularly used in response to "crimes against the state" and regarded across a number of cultures as a very harsh form of capital punishment and recorded in myth and art. Whilst small-scale flaying, although painful, is endurable, large-scale skinning inevitably leads to death. Keelhauling, which dates back in 800 B.C. Appearing repeatedly throughout modern popular film, television, and literature, rat torture is an especially cruel method of punishment. G*0 oAsvHkj]YK Ay$^i-:Gb&@SubuQ~ay@$": 1O4=z+088r"YWv;V?Ry6UR=r? I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. 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. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Victory Stele of Eannatum, King of Lagash, Called the Vulture Steleearly dynastic period, c. 2450 bc. A standing army is one made up of professional soldiers whose only job is to fight. Immurement, derived from the later im in and murus wall, literally comprises the entombing of an individual inside a wall or enclosed space without means of exit. The victim would suffer hours of agonizing pain as the rats dig a hole through his body, after which he would inevitably die. Middle Ages Torture, devices, techniques and facts. . More commonly appearing as a form of human sacrifice, however, many civilizations employed immurement as part of funerary rituals. It is unclear whether keelhauling was a common practice during the ancient world. "The torturer asked me where I was from. From here, he was transferred to the Hama military airport, where he was beaten upon arrival, stripped naked, interrogated and tortured. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. An illustrated depiction of the heretics fork in practice. This article has been adapted from its original source. The wheel would be erected like a pole, and the executioner would be permitted to decapitate the convict. Sometimes, they would stripped naked to humiliate them and leave them feeling weak and vulnerable. 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. From his capital at Ashur, Ashur-uballit extended Assyrian control over the rich farming . This usually results in lacerations, infection, and scarring, since the ships hull is covered in barnacles. An illustration from the French newspaper Le Monde Illustr, depicting the torture and execution of a French missionary in China by lingchi (c. 1858). Scenes of similar punishments can be seen on excavated Assyrian materials. The use of torture and mutilation as a fear tactic did not become a more common practice until the Assyrian Empire was built. 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. I made its destruction more complete than that by a flood. Unknown to him, she was sacrificed, with the priest appearing during the festival dinner wearing her skin as part of the ritual. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. 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. 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- He was executed by pressing. A wooden board would be placed on the victims chest and abdomen and heavy stones or iron weights would be gradually placed on top of the board, slowly suffocating the victim. Ashurbanipal was the king of Assyria from 668 to 627 BC, and he was apparently quite gifted intellectually. Sometimes, they got creative. 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. In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. Wardah Hajra Gadd, Cambridge University Press (1965), Viking atrocity and Skaldic verse: The Rite of the Blood Eagle, Roberta Frank, English Historical Review (1984), Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature: Negotiations of National Identity, Larissa Tracy, D.S. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. During the American Revolutionary War, both Loyalists and Patriots were recorded as inflicting the punishment upon their opponents. 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. depict warriors methodically removing the skin from prisoners' bodies, marking them as one of the first cultures to partake in the brutal torture. 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. He would then be lowered very slowly, the pyramid opening his anal orifice and slowly impaling him. Pressing as a form of punishment dates back to the 13th century in England. Its territory covered approximately . 0000003018 00000 n These people were usually lucky enough to bring their families. The Catherine Wheel, or the Breaking Wheel, was a method used for public execution through the Middle Ages, with the last known execution believed to have taken place in Prussia in 1841. The Premature Burial, by Antoine Wiertz (c. 1854). These showed them skinning their victims alive, blinding them, and impaling them on stakes. 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. endstream endobj 447 0 obj<> endobj 448 0 obj<> endobj 449 0 obj<>stream Any outsider who would gaze upon the monument would know not to mess with Lagash. If a man was caught with another man, the law said, they shall turn him into a eunuch. Adultery was punishable by death. 2y.-;!KZ ^i"L0- @8(r;q7Ly&Qq4j|9 On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. . The captives I have killed by the sword and flung on the dung heap. In the year 64 of the Common Era, the Great Fire of Rome devastated large parts of the imperial city. 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. endstream endobj 452 0 obj<>/W[1 1 1]/Type/XRef/Index[57 377]>>stream Syrian man, 42 recounts horrors in regime imprisonment, from having boiling water poured over him to reverse hanging. "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 The blood eagle - a ritualized method of torture and execution allegedly practiced by the Norse Vikings - opened up the ribs of the victim to craft their lungs into wings. If it pleases you, spare! 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. Some crimes were dealt with in savage ways. All of Assyria was subject to their resettlement policy, which uprooted whole families and moved them across the country. He would then be planted straight on the ground and left for exposure. While imprisoned, al-Drubi suffered many forms of abuse. Nevertheless, the ancient Roman Candles signify the first organized persecutions of Christians under the Romans. 0000001680 00000 n At least 500,000 people including women are currently languishing in Assad regime prisons and detention centers, according to opposition sources. In the medieval ages, torture was used to punish heretical behavior and sexual offenders. Assyrian relics also depict two types of executions: piercing through the chest and through the anus. 0000001458 00000 n Executions have often served as a kind of revenge, a way of inflicting pain and mental torture on the convict. 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. 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. Premature or live burial, as the name suggests, refers to the practice of burying an individual whilst they are still alive. Many countries surrendered. The Assyrian soldiers were trained in siege warfare, battle tactics, and hand-to-hand . The boot. Torture is unpleasant, as indeed is the intended purpose of the practice. Neros Torches, depicting the martyrdom of a group of early Christians in Rome, by Henryk Siemiradzki (c. 1876). He eventually died after two days of being pressed. 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. After enduring an agonizing rupturing of their anal canal, the victim would die unless released. The ancient Assyrian were among the most ruthless of all ancient warriors. 436 0 obj<>stream Annemasse. It was outlined as a naval punishment for sailors in the Rhodian Maritime Code. [5], In Chinese history, Sun Hao, Fu Sheng and Gao Heng were known for removing skin from people's faces. Every person watching their chariots approach would know that, compared to the fate the Assyrian army brought, death would be a relief. 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. 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.. 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. I flayed many right through my land and draped their skins over the walls, he boasts in one. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. Living persons, either willingly or forced as part of entombed chattel, were frequently buried alongside deceased people of status. "Torture and the . Thats exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers whove been involved in close hand-to-hand combat.. 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. Torturers would then use knives to make cuts on their. 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. 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. Sometimes, the executioner would be instructed to aim for the convicts heart or neck to cause immediate death. Ancient Torture. The men worked in a three-year cycle. Flaying. 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. A similar mode of execution was used as late as the early 18th century in France; one such episode is graphically recounted in the opening chapter of Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish (1979). 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. The Church used torture to force others to convert to Christianity and because the Church used torture, government authorities used the same means too. This form of execution became famous when Giles Corey, an American farmer charged with witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Although disputed for historical veracity, Plutarchs account has nonetheless proved influential. The Bishop of Pergamon, killed during the reign of Domitian, the first martyr of Asia Minor, was burned to death in 287. HWF}Wc/ v2`L&_Tu1M*$qt{o_|eo? The victims had mainly their faces flayed off, while they were still alive. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. trailer Every Assyrian man, from the poorest to the richest, was required to serve in the army. Appearing also in Malay history and culture, it has been contended the Siamese employed sprouts from the Nipah palm in an identical fashion to bamboo torture during the 1821 invasion of Kedah. Decreeing that Mithridates should be put to death in boats, two were framed exactly to fit his body to prevent escape. n3kGz=[==B0FX'+tG,}/Hh8mW2p[AiAN#8$X?AKHI{!7. They poured boiling water over us, burned us with cigarette butts.". The act of inflicting physical or psychological pain upon an individual, torture has served both a human as well as a judicial function since our earliest emergence into recorded history. Where do we find this stuff? It shows the decapitated heads of the enemy Ummite soldiers being carried away by vultures. The Assyrian empire was located in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. The fragment above is part of the Stele of Vultures. The method was done by tying the victim in a wooden frame and then cutting the flesh in varied, multiple and non-deadly slices. These kind of artifacts are very common. 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 is more commonly called skinning . Tied to a wooden frame in a public place, small pieces of flesh would be slowly cut from the body. In some accounts, there were cuts that numbered to 100 (Yuan Dynasty) and some were over 3,000 (Ming Dynasty). Equally, their hands and feet might be tied together to make balancing even harder or oil poured over the chair. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic about instilling fear in wrong doers, prisoners of war, or anyone that needed to be punished for any type of crime. Trapping a condemned prisoner, the individual would be force-fed milk and honey as well as coated in the foodstuffs. Vikings discovering North America. Since the victim would most likely lose consciousness after one or two severe wounds. The Ancient Greeks used to punish people by cooking them inside a huge bronze bull. But it was supposedly shattered due to her divinity. [citation needed]. (e.g. Wikimedia Commons. N')].uJr This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. 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.