assyrian torture methods

Ashurbanipal was the king of Assyria from 668 to 627 BC, and he was apparently quite gifted intellectually. They'd cut off the tongues of their captives so their screaming wouldn't be as loud when they were skinned alive. Multiple methods exist to accomplish the violent feat, including transversal or longitudinal impalement and bears striking similarities to bamboo 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. 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 Assyrian empire was located in Mesopotamia near the Euphrates River. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. . The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian (c. 1576). 434 0 obj<> endobj 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- Middle Ages Torture: Devices & Techniques - The Finer Times They were known for ruthless battle tactics and Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he had designed and built for Phalaris, by Pierre Woeiriot (c. 1532-1562). A criminal was locked inside the device via a door on its side and a fire was then lit underneath, slowly burning. 2y.-;!KZ ^i"L0- @8(r;q7Ly&Qq4j|9 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. Then the inquisitor would heat up the other end of the cage, leaving the panicked rats with no choice but to eat their way out through the victims flesh. Middle Ages Torture, devices, techniques and facts. These horrific and brutal images would surly make any enemy fear the wrath of Lagash. A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used as human food, or for its hide or fur. It involved trapping the naked victim within two, narrow boats joined together with his head, hands, and feet protruding. These people were usually lucky enough to bring their families. Murderers were handed over to the victims family, who were free to do with them as they willed. In the past, rulers also included these extra elements of punishment to turn executions into spectacles. Most famously, bamboo torture was alleged to have been used during World War II by the Japanese Empire against Allied prisoners of war. Flaying, also known as skinning, was a torture method which originated from 883-859 BC and documented in both carvings and official royal edicts. When the Assyrian king Seenacherib invaded Babylon, he wiped them off the map. 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 passage of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1791, prohibiting cruel and unusual punishments, was a direct response to this wartime practice and an attempt to prevent any further applications in the fledgling nation. 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. The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, although a last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, attempted to rescue 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. (e.g. These showed them skinning their victims alive, blinding them, and impaling them on stakes. In the sixth season of the television series, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:11. Its origin dates back to 530 A.D., And throughout the years, people have come up with new ways to perform these torturous acts probably hoping to obtain the truth efficiently or just to satisfy their sick pleasures. The rocks were to be used to build palaces and wonders for the kings, and the slaves couldnt stop for a moment. $iU-PGiSit::")SD.@&qk=mUi/6d07*w` 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 . Conversely, the U.S. has also been victims of the practice, with the late Senator John McCain famously subjected to the technique during the Vietnam War. The Breast Ripper, also known as the Iron Spider, was an instrument of torture during the latter years of the Middle Ages. 10 Things to Know About the Assyrian Empire 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. 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 Assyrians created tablets that showed them torturing their enemies to let the next city know what was coming. 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. Unlike immurement, where the victims suffer for days or possibly weeks, those buried alive most commonly die long before dehydration takes effect. From vagina impalement to 'death by elephant' - Gruesome - The Sun She was subsequently executed by decapitation. 10 Brilliant And Brutal Methods Of Ancient Psychological Warfare More commonly appearing as a form of human sacrifice, however, many civilizations employed immurement as part of funerary rituals. In the first year, they would build roads, bridges, and great projects to build up their strength and the strength of the empire. is known as the Neo-Assyrian period, during which the empire reached its zenith. 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. 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. For example, Neo-Assyrian kings used it to punish rebel leaders. Siege weapons barely existed at this time. 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. 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.. He was executed by pressing. to deny an afterlife); sometimes the skin is used, again for deterrence, esoteric/ritualistic purposes, etc. A notable figure who enjoyed this method of torture was the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad III. HBO. 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. 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. 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). and remained in use up to the 19th century. 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. Behind them, slave masters were always watching, ready to beat anyone who slacked. V)gB0iW8#8w8_QQj@&A)/g>'K t;\ $FZUn(4T%)0C&Zi8bxEB;PAom?W= Assyrian torture method. If it pleases you, spare! Make peace with me and come out to me! the envoy called out. Syrian man, 42 recounts horrors in regime imprisonment, from having boiling water poured over him to reverse hanging. under a series of powerful rulers, becoming one of the world's earliest . N')].uJr This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. Both were commonly inscribed with the Latin phrase abiruo I recant: an objective often achieved due to the eventual breaking of the subjects will. It has been suggested, without corroboration, that these candles were used as decorations during formal parties held by Nero. In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. This excruciating method has been used throughout history ever since then, and probably before as well. The former, stemming from Elizabethan England, is based on claims the Tower of London contained a Rats Dungeon wherein a cell blow high-water mark would draw in rats from the River Thames and victims would have fleshtorn from the arms and legs. He eventually died after two days of being pressed. Lewandowski, Herv. The ribs are then detached from the backbone. Then, he told me to kneel. [citation needed]. Vikings discovering North America. I burned their adolescent boys and girls. It was outlined as a naval punishment for sailors in the Rhodian Maritime Code. A torturous, if infrequent method of historical execution, death by boiling kills an individual by immersing them in a container of blistering liquid. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. My skin peeled off. The period from the ninth century to the end of the seventh century B.C. 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. The Spanish Inquisition, lasting from 1478 until 1834, existed for a sufficiently long period of time to incrementally perfect the art of torture. After the hell that women of all eras have suffered after wars, they and their children would be led off into slavery. They laid cities to waste, tortured the survivors, and spread terror everywhere they went. Once the victim was contained within, a fire would be lit beneath, heating the metal until either death or release. 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. It was a widespread method which was implemented and documented in various accounts. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. The atrocious torture of skinning - Emadion Others went further. A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. February 1934. After Perillos created his device, Phalaris allegedly ordered the engineer demonstrate its effectiveness with his own flesh. Impalement - Wikipedia Should the victim fall asleep or allow their head to droop, then the sharp prongs would begin to pierce their throat and neck. Wikimedia Commons. 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. Flaying. . nQt}MA0alSx k&^>0|>_',G! Ancient Torture - Bible History Ormerod, Dorset Press (1987), Von Ursprung des Schindens in Assyrien, Ernst G. Jung, in Kleine Kultrugeschichte der Haut, Spring Verlag (2007), Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear, Jan Bondeson, W.W. Norton & Company (2002), Vampires, Burial and Death: Folklore and Reality, Paul Barber University Press (1988), Crucifixion in Antiquity: An Inquiry into the Background and Significance of the New Testament Terminology of Crucifixion, Gunnar Samuelsson, Mohr Siebeck Publishing (2013), Crucifixion in the Roman World: The Use of Nails at the Time of Christ, John C. Robison, Studia Antiqua (June 2002), Death by a Thousand Cuts, Timothy Brook, Jerome Bourgon, and Gregory Blue, Harvard University Press (2008), The Cambridge Ancient History: Assyria and Babylon, c. 1370-1300 B.C., C.J. scalping). Wikimedia Commons. . "Assad's forces detained me, my four siblings and other men in the village. He was kind of famous among us as we endured much torture from his hand," he added. Scaphism, also known as the boats, is a disputed method of Persian torture and execution. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. Unknown to him, she was sacrificed, with the priest appearing during the festival dinner wearing her skin as part of the ritual. The society also used torture to persecute others for their religious affiliations. 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 was a whole engine on wheels. 0000001205 00000 n Also, their land was a geographical passage for various armies marching towards their enemies on the way. startxref 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. Exclusive: Syrian regime is being accused of implementing more than 72 torture methods, including crucifixion, rape, and eye-gouging. Abstract and Figures. In some instances, mercy might be granted allowing for a swifter death, with the wheelset on fire or the condemned beheaded. There were accounts that described it as a slow and brutal process. An illustration from the French newspaper Le Monde Illustr, depicting the torture and execution of a French missionary in China by lingchi (c. 1858). The victim would be forced to ingest milk and honey, eventually causing diarrhea. Forced to eat under pain of physical torture, Mithridates was drenched with a mixture of milk and honey. The Assyrians The Appalling Lords of Torture | Lessons from History Write Sign up Sign In 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. The Judas Cradle is a stool-shaped torture device with a pyramid structure on top. Their torturers would continuously hurl verbal abuse at the prisoners, al-Drubi recounted. All he left behind was a message, boasting of how far hed gone to decimate them. 10. 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 flayed many right through my land and draped their skins over the walls, he boasts in one. More often than not, though, the surviving men would be put through the hells they used to psychologically terrify the world. 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. [7][8] Hai Rui suggested that his emperor flay corrupt officials. Mutilation/Fear | Ancient Mesopotamian Warfare The miseries of war: No. As the Assyrian Empire grew, they built a standing army. Often, but not always used as a method of execution, the prisoner is left for an indefinite period of time to suffer from starvation and dehydration whilst trapped in isolation and darkness. References to a similar punishment for piracy existed in the Rhodian Maritime Code dating from 700 CE, but it was not until the Early Modern Period that keelhauling entered into prominence. 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. 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. This method was allegedly used in the 20th century by Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet. 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. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. 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. In some accounts, there were cuts that numbered to 100 (Yuan Dynasty) and some were over 3,000 (Ming Dynasty). The victims bones would be crushed and would sometimes burst through the skin. These kind of artifacts are very common. Scaphism: The Ancient Persian Torture Method That Killed Victims With There were no accurate details of how this method of execution was carried out. In their royal edicts, the Neo-Assyrian kings seem to gloat over the terrible fate they imposed upon their captives, and that flaying seems, in particular, to be the fate meted out to rebel leaders. Maria If you think you can handle it, then heres a list of ancient torture methods thatll be sure to make your toes curl. 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. It is unclear whether keelhauling was a common practice during the ancient world. Torture Methods - The Assyrian Empire A standing army is one made up of professional soldiers whose only job is to fight.