Man is an intellectual and sublime being, able to create truly great masterpieces. But the products of his creativity are not always put at the service of good, sometimes his inventions are terrifying with their sophisticated cruelty.
| N | Execution | Country of invention | First mention |
| 1 | Persia | 5th century BC e. | |
| 2 | Assyria | II millennium BC e. | |
| 3 | India | 1st millennium BC e. | |
| 4 | Ancient Rome | VI century BC e. | |
| 5 | Phoenicia | XI century BC e. | |
| 6 | Siam | XVI century | |
| 7 | China | 17th century | |
| 8 | Scandinavia | X century | |
| 9 | Egypt | III millennium BC e. | |
| 10 | Italy | XX century | |
| 11 | USA | XX century | |
| 12 | Argentina | XX century |
The name comes from the word "trough" or "boat" in ancient Greek. The concept itself became known thanks to Plutarch, who described the death of the Persian warrior Mithridates, who was executed in this way.
The execution consisted in stripping the victim naked, after which they tied them between two dugout boats so that only the head and legs remained outside. They were thickly smeared with honey. The man was then forcibly given honey and milk to drink until he had diarrhea. The boats were lowered into a reservoir of stagnant water. The smell of sewage and honey attracted numerous insects that covered the body of the unfortunate, slowly devouring his flesh and laying larvae in it. Death occurred within two weeks.
There were two methods of execution. The man was impaled by inserting him into the anus, and over time he exited through the chest. In another way, the victim was injected with a stake in the chest area. Such images are present on numerous bas-reliefs, for the edification of contemporaries and descendants. Subsequently, this method of execution spread to the countries of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, as well as to the Slavic territories.
The method of execution is widespread in India and Sri Lanka. The Asian rulers knew perfectly well that Indian elephants are well-trained and used it.
There were many ways to carry out the execution. They could put on armor with spears on the tusks, with which the condemned was pierced, after which the elephant tore him apart. But most often the elephants trampled on the convicts, tearing off their limbs with their trunk. In India, condemned people were often simply thrown at the feet of an angry animal that weighs about five tons.
In ancient Rome, Christians were executed in the arenas. Of course, this method of killing was better known much earlier and was not invented by the Romans. Lions, less often buffaloes, leopards, bears and panthers took part in the massacre.
A man could be tied to a pole in the middle of the arena and wild animals were lowered onto him. Also, the criminal was thrown into a cage with wild animals or tied tightly to the back of the animal. There were cases when the victim was put up for battle against a wild beast. A short spear was folded for him with weapons, a tunic in his uniform. In ancient Rome and in later times, such executions always attracted many spectators.
Crucifixion or execution on the cross
This method of execution was invented by the Phoenicians - a people of seafarers living in the Mediterranean. Subsequently, the crucifixion was used by the Carthaginians and the ancient Romans. On the territory of Rome and in Israel, such an execution was considered shameful, so recidivists, criminals, thieves and traitors were punished.
Before the act, the victim was stripped to a loincloth. After being beaten with leather whips or fresh twigs, he himself carried the cross to the place of execution, such a cross weighed up to 50 kilograms. After the installation of the cross, the criminal was lifted up with ropes and nailed to the cross. In some cases, they could interrupt the legs with an iron bar. The victim died of dehydration, pain shock and exhaustion.
Bamboo
It is believed that the method of killing with bamboo was invented and first tested in ancient China, but there are no reliable sources on this topic. But there is evidence of the use of this kind of torture in Siam and on the island of Sri Lanka.
The condemned man stretched himself out between the young, growing shoots of the plant. For several days, trunks of young bamboo were sprouting through his body, actually making holes in his internal organs. In rare cases, the executed man managed to live for one week, but this was already considered a rarity. Bamboo grew quickly and killed a person much earlier.
The name can be translated into Russian as “sea pike bites”. There was also another name for "death from a thousand cuts." For the first time, this method of execution began to be used during the reign of the Qing dynasty, execution was applied only in relation to high-ranking officials who were stealing. About 15-20 people were recruited per year.
The essence of the lynch is that its parts were gradually cut off from the body of the condemned. For example, an executioner chopped off a phalanx of a finger, burned a place and moved on to the next. The court itself decided how much and what to cut. Moreover, the number of such shredding was from 24 to 3000. Sometimes, in the form of special favor to the sentenced person, the court ruled to first behead him, and then cut off the body parts. Banned only in 1905.
Historians doubt that such an execution actually existed, but there are references to it in the folklore of the peoples of Scandinavia. In the Scandinavian countries, this method of execution was used in the early Middle Ages.
This is how the harsh Vikings often executed their enemies. The convict was tied behind his back and laid face down on a tree stump. The executioner neatly cut the skin on the back, after which he lifted the ribs with an ax and broke them out. After that, they somewhat resembled the wings of an eagle in shape. Then the lungs were removed from the victim's body and hung on the ribs.
After that, the victim died a painful death within 24 hours.
This variant of killing was developed in ancient times and found wide application in the Middle Ages. Basically, the execution was applied to counterfeiters. If he was convicted of counterfeiting money, he was thrown into a cauldron of boiling resin or water, where the unfortunate man was boiled alive. Such an execution was relatively humane, the death of the offender came from a severe pain shock. If a more sophisticated executioner came across, he would put the criminal in a cauldron of cold water, the water gradually heated up, or the person was slowly lowered into this water, starting from the area of \u200b\u200bthe feet, when the water was already becoming boiling water. When a person was still alive and fully conscious, the cooked muscles moved away from his leg bones.
It is believed that this method of execution began to be used by the Sicilian mafia, the first to apply this method in practice was allegedly the mafia Giovanni Brusca.
Today, this method of reprisal is practiced by eastern extremists. Saddam Hussein's personal bodyguard once witnessed such a reprisal. According to him, the pool was first filled with a caustic substance, then the victim's legs were gradually lowered into it, after which it was thrown into it entirely. During 2016, ISIS fighters boiled 25 people in an acid pool.
Cement boots or Chicago coat
This method of execution is reflected in numerous TV series about the life of gangsters and mafia. Indeed, even during the mafia wars in Chicago, gangsters dealt with their enemies and traitors in this way. A person was tied to a chair, a basin was placed under his feet, into which liquid concrete was poured. When the cement hardened, the convict was brought into a reservoir and pushed into the water. Shoes made of cement instantly carried the victim to the bottom, and he became food for fish.
In Argentina, dictator Jorge Videla came to power in 1976. During the five years of his leadership of the country, he gained fame as the most brutal tyrant of our time. The so-called "death flights" later became widely known as one of his most sophisticated atrocities.
A person who opposed the tyrannical regime was pumped up with drugs, after which he was taken to an airplane and, after gaining altitude, was thrown down, and always into the water.
Humanity has always tried to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, on pain of severe death, they would not repeat such actions. To quickly deprive a convict, who could easily have turned out to be innocent, life was not enough then, therefore they invented various painful executions. This post will introduce you to similar methods of executions.
Garrote - execution by strangulation or fracture of the Adam's apple. The executioner twisted the thread as tightly as he could. Some varieties of garrote were equipped with thorns or a bolt that broke the spinal cord. This execution was widespread in Spain, and in 1978 it was outlawed. Garrote was officially used for the last time in 1990 in Andorra, however, according to some reports, it is still used in India.
Scafism is a brutal execution method invented in Persia. A person was placed between two boats or hollowed-out tree trunks, laid on top of each other, so that his head and limbs remained outside. He was fed only with honey and milk, which caused severe diarrhea. They also coated the body with honey in order to attract insects. After a while, the poor fellow was allowed into a pond with stagnant water, where there were already a huge number of insects, worms and other creatures. All of them slowly ate his flesh and left the larvae in the wounds. There is also a version that honey attracted only stinging insects. In any case, the person was doomed to long torments that lasted for several days or even weeks.
The Assyrians used skinning for torture and execution. Like a captured animal, the skin was ripped off the person. Some or all of the skin could be ripped off.
Ling chi was used in China from the 7th century to 1905. This method involved death from cuts. The victim was tied to pillars and stripped of some parts of the flesh. The number of cuts could be very different. They could make several small cuts, cut off some of the skin somewhere, or even strip the victim's limbs. The number of cuts was determined by the court. Sometimes the convicts were given opium. All this took place in a crowded place, and even after death, the bodies of the deceased were left in full view of everyone for some time.
The wheel was used in ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages it began to be used in Europe. By the New Time, the wheel of the wheel became widespread in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Russia (legislatively approved under Peter I), the USA and other states. A person was tied to a wheel with large bones already broken or still intact, after which they were broken with a crowbar or truncheons. A person still alive was left to die of dehydration or shock, whichever came first.
The brazen bull is the favorite execution weapon of Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigent, who ruled in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. The sentenced to death was placed inside a life-size hollow copper statue of a bull. A fire was made under the bull. It was impossible to get out of the statue, and the watchers could watch the smoke come out of the nostrils and hear the screams of the dying man.
Evisceration has been used in Japan. Some or all of the internal organs were removed from the convict. The latter cut out the heart and lungs to prolong the suffering of the victim. Sometimes evisceration served as a method of ritual suicide.
Boiling began to be used about 3000 years ago. Used it in Europe and Russia, as well as some Asian countries. A person sentenced to death was placed in a cauldron, which could be filled not only with water, but also with fat, resin, oil, or molten lead. At the time of immersion, the liquid could already boil, or it boiled afterwards. The executioner could hasten the onset of death, or vice versa, prolong the torment of a person. It also happened that boiling liquid was poured onto a person or poured down his throat.
Impaling was first used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. They planted on the stake in different ways and the thickness of the stake could be different. The stake itself could be inserted either into the rectum or into the vagina, if they were women, through the mouth or through an opening that was made in the genital area. Often the top of the stake was blunt to prevent the victim from dying right away. The stake with the convict impaled on it was lifted up and the condemned to painful death slowly descended down it under the influence of gravity.
Hanging and quartering was used in medieval England to punish traitors to the motherland and criminals who committed an especially grave act. The man was hanged, but so that he remained alive, after which he was deprived of limbs. It could go so far that the unfortunate man's genitals were cut off, his eyes were gouged out and the internal organs were cut out. If the person was still alive, then at the end his head was cut off. Such an execution existed until 1814.
Top 10 sophisticated and brutal executions invented by people
Since ancient times, people have come up with more and more sophisticated methods of execution, since death was not only a punishment, but also a real show. The people went to watch the execution, about the same as we go to the concert now.
And the more torture she delivered to the executed, the more the public gathered. We have collected ten of the most terrible and painful methods of mortification that people have ever come up with.Number
This sophisticated execution came from the east, but was successfully used in Eastern Europe as well. The point is that a sharpened stake was inserted into the victim's anus, and then the person was placed vertically, and he drove the stake deeper with his own weight, tearing his insides. Sometimes they used not a sharp stake, but a stake rounded at the end, so that it did not pierce, but went deeper. Sometimes the depth of the entrance was limited by a transverse bar so that the stake did not reach the heart and vital organs - in this case, the unfortunate person could die of blood loss for up to several days.
Hook
Hanging on a hook was practiced in Russia. Basically, this execution was applied to the robbers and served as an edification for the rest, so that they understand that the "high road" will not lead to good. The sentenced person was hooked under the rib and hung up. Hands were tied behind the back so that the victim could not get out. A person could hang like that for several days, until he dies.
Burning at the stake
This is the favorite method of the Holy Inquisition used to execute heretics and witches. It was believed that fire purifies the soul and contributes to its salvation. But the legend of the purification does not diminish the cruelty of such an execution. At first, all the hair on the person's face was burned, then the tissues began to burn. At the same time, the executed person breathed in hot air and thereby burned his lungs. The scientist Giordano Bruno, the famous Jeanne D'Arc and many other worthy people died this terrible, painful death.
Bamboo
This execution was invented in Asia. People noticed that bamboo grows at an incredible rate - up to thirty centimeters per day, and decided to use this property for killing. The victim was laid on its back on top of bamboo shoots and tied. During the day, the plant slowly germinated through the human body, penetrating it with dozens of sprouts. A terrible, painful death.
Bloody eagle
This demonstrative execution was used among the Scandinavian tribes. The victim's ribs near the spine were cut off with an ax on both sides, then they were bent back and the lungs were taken out through the holes. In such a state, with lungs outward, a person could still live for some time. The execution is called "Red Eagle" because the protruding lungs resembled the wings of an eagle.
Flaying
In the Middle Ages, execution performed several functions at once. For the person being executed it is punishment, but for the rest it is entertainment and edification. That is why such executions were often public and attracted a huge number of spectators. The worse the execution, the better. Skinning is probably one of the most effective ways to kill. A person was skinned alive, which was then nailed to a wall in a public place as a reminder that punishment was inevitable and would apply to anyone who broke the law.
Evisceration
Also a very effective way to slowly kill a person. The perpetrator's stomach was ripped open and his insides taken out. The task of the executioner was to keep the victim alive as long as possible. The guts could be wound on a stick or roller. There are cases when the intestine was nailed to a tree and a person was forced to walk around it, slowly winding around the trunk.
Rats
In this execution, the executioners used not only torment with pain, but also the animal fear of man. A cage with rats was tied to the victim with a door to the body, and then they began to heat the cage with coals. Rats in panic began to rush around the cage in search of a way out. As a result, they began to tear human flesh, gnawing through the skin, bones, entrails and released either through the stomach, gnawing through a person, or through the mouth.
The attitude towards crimes and criminals in different eras and in different countries was different, so that the severity of punishment varied. But if a person was already sentenced to death, then it was very cruel. The most cruel executions in the history of mankind are terrifying, since the condemned could die in terrible agony for weeks.
10 most brutal executions in the world
1. Chinese execution. Oddly enough, the executioners treated women with particular cruelty. One of the worst executions in history was practiced in China. The sentenced woman was stripped naked and, having deprived of support on her feet, was fixed between her legs with a saw.
Execution "Sawing"
The woman's hands were tied to the ring. The force of gravity drove the victim down onto the cutting edges of the saws, so that her body was slowly sawed from the bosom to the sternum. The reasons for such a terrible punishment are incomprehensible to us, for example, the rice cooked by the cook turned out to be not as snow-white as the color of the owner's wisdom demanded.
2. Quartering. In Russia, and throughout Europe, in India, China, Egypt, Persia and Rome, this execution meant tearing or dismembering a human body into several parts. The parts themselves were put on public display after the execution was completed. There are many options for dividing the criminal into parts - he was torn apart by horses, bulls, treetops. In some cases, an executioner was used to chop off limbs.
Execution "Quartering" Moreover, it is impossible even to single out for what type of crime such a punishment was imposed. It was often used when it was necessary to make the execution spectacular. Therefore, they quartered deserters and their family members, state criminals, rapists, Christians in ancient Rome, etc.
3. "Tin Soldier". Prison "Alcatraz" went down in history as one of the most creepy prisons in the world due to executions. The administration of the correctional institution had an unhealthy imagination, otherwise it is simply impossible to explain the appearance of the "tin soldier".
The convicted prisoner received an injection of heroin, after which he was poured with heated paraffin. At the same time, the guards put the person in a pose that was funny from their sick point of view. When the paraffin solidified, the person simply could no longer move - it turned out to be a "tin soldier". After that, the guards cut off the prisoner's limbs. Death from shock and blood loss lasted for hours, which the executed man endured in terrible torment.
4. "Cradle of Judas". Another no less brutal version of the killing of prisoners in "Alcatraz" is "the cradle of Judas". The person sentenced to execution was put on a pyramid, his hands and body were fixed. The tip of the pyramid was placed in the anus or vagina, so that the structure gradually tore apart the body. To speed up the process, weights were attached to the feet of the sentenced person, increasing the pressure.
This slow and painful death from blood loss and sepsis took up to several days, with weighting agents the process accelerated to several hours. The leadership of the famous prison borrowed this barbaric method from the medieval inquisitors.
5. Keeling. For pirates, a separate set of executions was used, the worst of which was keeling. The man was tied up and pulled on a rope under the keel of the ship.
Execution "Keeling" Since this lasted a long time, the person managed to choke, not to mention the blows against the keel itself, covered with sharp mollusks - the skin was ripped off the person. However, this type of punishment for disobeying the captain, who possessed absolute power on the ship, was practiced in the English fleet as well.
6. Deserted island. Another pirate version of the execution known throughout the world - the rioters were not killed, but landed on an uninhabited island that would feed the criminals.
Many unfortunate rebels remained for years to drag out a miserable existence on plots of land without normal food and amenities.
7. Walking on the board. This version of execution by pirates is described in adventure novels.
Execution "Walking the plank" The crew of the captured ship was not needed by the robbers, so they went to sea. A plank was put up over the side of the ship, so that a person, having passed it, fell into the sea in the mouths of waiting sharks.
8. Execution for treason. In many cultures, the punishment for adultery for a woman is death. The methods of execution vary. In Turkey, an adulteress was sewn into a sack with a cat and thrashed on the sack. The distraught animal tore the woman apart, and the condemned woman died of blood loss and beatings.
In Korea, a traitor was forced to drink vinegar, and then the swollen body of an adulteress was beaten with sticks until the weaker sex died.
9. Executions in ISIS. The types of punishments adopted by ISIS (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) also belong to the category of cruel ones, but they do not occupy the first place in the list of TOP-10 gruesome executions.
Representatives of the group willingly disseminate in the media photos and videos of executions by burning, beheading, which is not much different from the medieval set of tortures and executions.
10. Executions for rape. Executions for rape are often much less brutal than for adultery, especially for the fairer sex. Nevertheless, the death of the rapist was threatened not only in the Middle Ages, it is still relevant now in Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Sudan.
However, Muslim tort law sometimes causes strange decisions. There are precedents when, after a rape, a girl is executed by stoning, since the victim allegedly seduced the rapist. In other countries, for crimes of a sexual nature, the offender will be punished by imprisonment for a term of 1 year to life imprisonment.
In Soviet times, rape by a repeat offender, rape that entailed serious consequences, or the rape of a minor victim was punishable by death. This law was in effect until 1997. By the way, a similar measure for the rape of a child in the US state of Louisiana was canceled only in 2008.
Chinese bamboo torture
The infamous method of the gruesome Chinese execution throughout the world. Perhaps a legend, because not a single documentary evidence has survived to this day that this torture was actually used.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow up to a meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
Bamboo grove. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to make sharp "spears";
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or belly above a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo grows rapidly in height, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, a person dies for a very long time and painfully.
Like the torture with bamboo, the "iron maiden" is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp thorns inside only frightened those under investigation, after which they confessed to anything.
"Iron Maiden"
The Iron Maiden was invented at the end of the 18th century, that is, at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
"Iron Maiden". (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The victim is pushed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The thorns driven into the inner walls of the "iron maiden" are rather short and do not pierce the victim through, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, in a matter of minutes receives a confession, which the arrested person can only sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and remains silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never confesses to the deed, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from blood loss;
5) In some models of the "iron maiden" spikes were provided at eye level to gouge them out.
The name of this torture comes from the Greek "scaphium" which means "trough". Skafism was popular in ancient Persia. The victim, most often a prisoner of war, during the torture was devoured alive by various insects that were not indifferent to human flesh and blood and their larvae.
Scafism. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is forcibly fed with large quantities of milk and honey, from which the victim begins to have profuse diarrhea, attracting insects.
3) The prisoner, who has been crap, smeared with honey, is allowed to swim in the trough in the swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main course.
Pear of Suffering
This cruel tool has been used to punish women who have aborted, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina for women or the anus for men. When the executioner twisted the screw, the "petals" opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torment to the victims. Many then died from blood poisoning.
Pear of Suffering. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) An instrument consisting of pointed, pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is pushed by the client into the desired hole in the body;
2) The executioner gradually turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves” -segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear opens completely, the guilty one receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness before.
Copper bull
The design of this death machine was developed by the ancient Greeks, or more precisely, the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply adored torturing and killing people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door. And then Falaris first of all tested the unit on its creator - the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Falaris himself was roasted in a bull.
Copper bull. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The sacrifice is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is made under the belly of the bull;
3) The victim is roasted alive;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr are heard from the jaws of the statue, like a bull's roar;
5) Ornaments and charms were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold in bazaars and were in great demand.
Rat torture was very popular in ancient China. However, we will take a look at the rat punishment technique developed by the leader of the 16th century Netherlands Revolution, Didrik Sonoi.
Torture with rats. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The martyr, stripped naked, is laid on the table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner's stomach and chest. The bottom of the cages is opened with a special latch;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape from the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
Cradle of Judas
The Cradle of Judas was one of the most excruciating torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema, the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died of infection, due to the fact that the torture machine's pointed seat was never disinfected. The cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered "loyal", for it did not break bones and did not tear ligaments.
Cradle of Judas. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is pierced into the anus or vagina;
3) With the help of ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
Rack
Probably the most famous and unsurpassed death machine called "rack". It was first experienced around AD 300. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rearing could no longer use their muscles and turned into a helpless vegetable.
Rack. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, on which ropes were wound to hold the victim's wrists and ankles. With the rotation of the rollers, the ropes were pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments on the victim's arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of the joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called the strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The person being interrogated was tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his tied legs. At the same time, the hands of the person raised on the rack were twisted back and often came out of the joints, so that the convict had to hang on the twisted hands. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe.
4. In Russia, a suspect who was raised on a rack was beaten on the back with a whip, and “put on fire,” that is, they drove over the body with burning brooms.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with hot pincers.
Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Juanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the memory of the slave with terrible torture - putting a width on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battles.
Shiri. (pinterest.com)
How it works?
1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved baldly, each hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. Executors slaughtered the camel and refreshed its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, densenest part.
3. Dividing it into pieces, it was immediately pulled in paired form over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces covered the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on a shir.
4. After putting on the width, the neck of the doomed was shackled into a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one could hear their heartbreaking cries, and were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few survived, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from the unbearable, inhuman torment caused by the drying rawhide camel skin shrinking on the head. Compressing inexorably under the rays of the scorching sun, it squeezed wide, squeezed the shaved head of a slave like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into rawhide, in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and again left the ends in the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day, the person lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the zhuanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured was found alive, it was believed that the goal had been achieved.
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure, or died, could not bear the torture, or lost his memory for a lifetime, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five to six widths.
Spanish water torture
In order to best carry out the procedure for this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of rack or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner proceeded to work in one of several ways. One of these methods was to force the victim with a funnel to swallow a large amount of water, then beat the inflated and arched abdomen.
Torture with water. (pinterest.com)
Another form involved placing a rag tube in the victim's throat, through which water was slowly poured, which caused the victim to swell and suffocate. If that was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then reinserted and the process repeated. Sometimes they used cold water torture. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under a stream of ice cold water. It is interesting to note that this kind of torture was considered easy, and the confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court as voluntary and given to the defendants without torture. Most often, this torture was used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to beat confessions from heretics and witches.
Spanish armchair
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were enclosed in blocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly roast, and in order to prolong the poor man's suffering, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Spanish armchair. (pinterest.com)
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne, to which the victim was tied and a fire was made under the seat, frying the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
Gridiron (grate for torture by fire)
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and invented, but there is no evidence that Gridiron "lived" until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate 6 feet long and two and a half wide, set horizontally on legs so that a fire can be made underneath.
Sometimes gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar lattice.
This torture was rarely used. Firstly, it was easy enough to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
Bloody eagle
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and the back was opened, the ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. In Scandinavian legends, it is stated that during such an execution, the victims were sprinkled with salt.
Bloody eagle. (pinterest.com)
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses convicted of treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.
"Catherine's Wheel"
Before tying the victim to the wheel, her limbs were broken. When rotating, the legs and arms were finally broken, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.
Catherine's wheel. (pinterest.com)
Spanish donkey
A wooden log in the form of a triangle was fixed on the "legs". The naked victim was placed on top at a sharp angle that cut right into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.
Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)
Spanish boot
This is such an attachment on the leg with a metal plate, which with each question and the subsequent refusal to answer it as required, tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes the inquisitor was connected to the torture, who hit the mount with a hammer. Often, after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were shattered, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.
Spanish boot. (pinterest.com)
Quartering by horses
The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.
Quartering. (pinterest.com)
As early as the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferred punishment over prison, because imprisonment turned out to be a slow mortification. The stay in prison was paid by the relatives, and they themselves often asked that the culprit be killed.
Convicts were not kept in prisons - it was too expensive. If the relatives had money, then they could take their loved one for maintenance (usually he was sitting in an earthen hole). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insults to an official, etc.) were stocks. The most common type of shoe is kanga (or chia). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were shackled into this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.
Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the recidivist caught another), removing the knee caps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment heavier, the judges invented an execution that was called "to carry out five types of punishments." The offender was to be branded, cut off his arms or legs, beaten to death with sticks, and put his head on the market for all to see.
In Chinese tradition, decapitation was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the fact that suffocation is characterized by prolonged torment.
The Chinese believed that a person's body is a gift from his parents, and therefore it is extremely disrespectful to return a dismembered body to oblivion. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.
Strangulation. The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually crushing the convict.
The strangulation could last for a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and let the almost strangled victim take a few convulsive breaths, and then tighten the noose again.
"Cage" or "standing blocks" (Li-jia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles rallied into a cage, at a height of about 2 meters. The convict was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, so that they were then slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck clamped with a block that began to choke him, this could go on for months until all the stands were removed.
Lin Chi - "death from a thousand cuts" or "sea pike bites" - the most terrible execution by cutting off small pieces from the victim's body for a long period of time.
Such an execution followed high treason and parricide. Lin-chi for the purpose of intimidation was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers.
For crimes punishable by death and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called ling-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The offender was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 pieces. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body, as a sign of imperial favor, was cut into only 8 pieces.
The criminal was cut into 24 pieces as follows: 1 and 2 blows cut off the eyebrows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - the muscles of the arms between the hand and the elbow; 9 and 10 - the muscles of the arms between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves of the legs; 15 - pierced the heart with a blow; 16 - cut off the head; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the rest of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut into 8 pieces as follows: 1 and 2 blows cut off the eyebrows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - pierced the heart with a blow; 8 - cut off the head.
But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen hole a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.
Today we have prepared TOP pro for you the most terrible executions in the world.Many people dream of being in the past centuries, after watching films that show all the delights of balls, palaces and entertainment of that time. But if you really want to be in the past, then you should not forget that there was a completely different side of the coin.
Witches were burned at the stake, heretics were killed, and many people were simply tortured to death with impunity, so that the rest would not be confused. So the topic of today's article will be just about the most terrible executions of the past. So think twice if you really want to go back in time, because what happens, you will not be able to go to court.
5th place: Impaling
Some of us use an expression that has long been inscribed in the lexicon, namely: "Yes, put him on a stake." Now we use it only in a figurative sense, but if you find yourself in ancient Russia and make an unsuccessful joke, you could very well personally familiarize yourself with this type of execution.
A person was injected into the anus with a stake, sometimes pointed, and sometimes blunt, so that he would suffer longer and after that they put him upright. Therefore, under the weight of a person, the stake penetrated deeper and deeper inside, causing unbearable pain and, as a result, death.
4th place: Freshness
Another no less sophisticated method of murder, and for many it was such a special way of entertainment. They gathered mainly in some central place so that more people could come and skinned a person alive. Not only did they inflict terrible pain on the offender in this way, but also his skin was left nailed on the walls for a long time, so that, as they say, the rest would not be accustomed to.
3rd place: Bamboo
In Asia, the most attentive people noticed that bamboo grows very quickly, it can grow up to 30 cm in just a day. Then it was decided that there was no need to be sophisticated and come up with special devices for death, when you can use nature for your own purposes. A person was taken, tied to bamboo shoots in a horizontal position, and so left. The bamboo grew and at the same time penetrated the body of the poor fellow, death was long and terribly painful.
2nd place: Quartering
Practically one of the most terrible types of execution, where the victim simply begs to finish faster, but this only adds fervor and heat to the audience and the executioner. The guilty ones were slightly stunned at the beginning so that they would not twitch, and after that the worst thing began, the man's stomach was ripped open, his genitals were cut off, he was cut into 4 pieces and only after that his head was cut off. The sight was terrible and bloody, but despite this, it was very popular. One of the worst executions in history.
1st place: Ling Chi (Thousand Knives)
Probably the worst and most painful execution in the world was practiced in China. Everything is strict there, I made a mistake so pay for it in full. To kill it was simply not considered a good enough example so that the rest would not want to, so the guys from China tied a person and from time to time cut off a piece from him.
From the very beginning of human history, people began to invent the most sophisticated methods of execution in order to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, on pain of severe death, they would not repeat such actions. Below is a list of the ten most heinous execution methods in history. Fortunately, most of them are no longer used.
The bull Phalaris, also known as the copper bull, is an ancient execution weapon invented by Perilius of Athens in the 6th century BC. The design was a huge copper bull, hollow inside, with a door on the back or side. There was enough room in it to accommodate a person. The executed person was placed inside, the door was closed, and a fire was kindled under the belly of the statue. There were openings in the head and nostrils that made it possible to hear the screams of a person inside, which were like the growl of a bull.
Interestingly, the creator of the copper bull himself, Perilay, was the first to test the device in action on the orders of the tyrant Falaris. Perilaya was removed from the bull while still alive, and then thrown off a cliff. Falaris himself also suffered the same fate - death in a bull.
Hanging, gutting and quartering is a method of execution common in England for treason, which was once considered the most terrible crime. It only applied to men. If a woman was caught in high treason, she was burned alive. Incredibly, this method was legal and valid until 1814.
First of all, the convict was tied to a wooden sled drawn by a horse and dragged to the place of death. Then the criminal was hanged and, just a few moments before his death, was taken out of the noose and laid on the table. After that, the executioner castrated and gutted the victim, burning the entrails in front of the condemned. Finally, the victim's head was cut off and the body was divided into four parts. The English official Samuel Pips, witnessing one of these executions, described it in his famous diary:
“In the morning I met Captain Cuttance, then I got to Charing Cross, where I saw Major General Harrison hanged, gutted and quartered. He tried to look as cheerful as possible in this situation. He was removed from the noose, then his head was cut off and his heart was taken out, showing the crowd, which caused general jubilation. Previously, he tried, and now they have tried him. "
Usually, all five parts of the executed were sent to different parts of the country, where they were demonstratively installed on the gallows, as a warning to others.
There were two ways of being burned alive. In the first, the convict was tied to a post and covered with wood and brushwood, so that he burned inside a flame. It is said that this is how Joan of Arc was burned. Another method was that a person was placed on top of a pile of firewood, bundles of brushwood and tied with ropes or chains to a pole, so that the flame slowly rose to it, gradually covering the whole body.
When the execution was carried out by a skilled executioner, the victim burned in the following sequence: ankles, hips and arms, torso and forearms, chest, face, and finally, the person died. Needless to say, it was very painful. If a large number of people were to be burned at the same time, the victims would die from carbon monoxide before the fire reached them. And if the fire was weak, then the victim usually died from shock, blood loss or heatstroke.
In later versions of this execution, the criminal was hanged and then burned purely symbolically. This method of execution was used to burn witches in most parts of Europe, however it was not used in England.
Lynching is a particularly painful method of capital punishment by cutting off small fragments from the body for a long period of time. Practiced in China until 1905. The victim's arms, legs and chest were slowly cut off, until they finally cut off the head and stabbed them directly in the heart. Many sources claim that the cruelty of this method is greatly exaggerated when they say that the execution could be carried out over several days.
A contemporary witness to this execution, journalist and politician Henry Norman, describes it as follows:
“The criminal was tied to a cross, and the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, would begin by grabbing handfuls from the fleshy parts of the body, such as the thighs and chest, to cut them off. After that, he removed the joints and protruding parts of the body, one after the other nose and ears, fingers. Then the limbs were cut off in parts at the wrists and ankles, elbows and knees, shoulders and hips. Finally, the victim was stabbed right in the heart and the head was cut off. "
The wheel, also known as the Catherine's Wheel, is a medieval execution device. The man was tied to a wheel. Then they broke all the large bones of the body with an iron hammer and left them to die. The wheel was placed on the top of the pillar, giving the birds the opportunity to profit from the sometimes still living body. This could go on for several days until the person died of painful shock or dehydration.
In France, some concessions were granted in executions when the convicted person was strangled before the execution.
The convict was stripped naked and placed in a vat of boiling liquid (oil, acid, resin or lead), or in a container of cold liquid that gradually heated up. Criminals could be hung on a chain and immersed in boiling water until they died. During the reign of King Henry VIII, poisoners and counterfeiters were betrayed by a similar execution.
Peeling off the skin meant execution, during which all the skin was removed from the body of the offender, using a sharp knife, and it had to remain intact for demonstration in order to intimidate. This execution dates back to ancient times. For example, the Apostle Bartholomew was crucified upside down on the cross, and his skin was flayed.
The Assyrians flayed their enemies to show who had power in the captured cities. Among the Aztecs in Mexico, ritual skin peeling or scalping was common, usually after the death of the victim.
Although this method of execution has long been considered inhumane and illegal, in Myanmar, there have been cases of skin stripping of all men in the village of Karenni.
The African necklace is a type of execution during which a car tire filled with gasoline or other combustible material is put on the victim and then set on fire. This led to the fact that the human body turned into a molten mass. The death was extremely painful and shocking. This type of execution was common in South Africa in the 80s and 90s of the last century.
The African necklace was used against alleged criminals by "people's courts" based in black townships as a means of circumventing the apartheid judicial system (a policy of racial segregation). In this way, members of the community who were considered to be members of the regime were punished, including black police officers, city officials, as well as their relatives and partners.
Similar executions were observed in Brazil, Haiti and Nigeria during the Muslim protest.
Skafism is an ancient Persian method of execution that results in painful death. The victim was stripped naked and tied tightly inside a narrow boat or hollowed out tree trunk, and covered with the same boat on top so that the arms, legs and head were sticking out. The executed person was forcibly given milk and honey to cause severe diarrhea. In addition, the body was smeared with honey. After that, the person was allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water or left in the sun. Such a "container" attracted insects, which slowly devoured the flesh and laid larvae in it, which led to gangrene. In order to prolong the torment, the victim could be fed every day. In the end, death was most likely the result of a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, and septic shock.
According to Plutarch, by this method in 401 BC. e. Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, was executed. The unfortunate died only 17 days later. A similar method was used by the indigenous people of America - the Indians. They tied the victim to a tree, rubbed it with oil and mud, and left it to the ants. Usually a person died from dehydration and hunger after a few days.
The person sentenced to this execution was hung upside down and sawed vertically in the middle of the body, starting from the groin. Since the body was upside down, the criminal's brain had a constant flow of blood, which, despite the great blood loss, allowed him to remain conscious for a long time.
A similar execution was used in the Middle East, Europe and parts of Asia. Sawing is believed to be the favorite method of execution for the Roman emperor Caligula. In the Asian version of this execution, the person was sawed off from the head.
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The death penalty - how much terrifying there is in this word. The associations are not pleasant. The torment of man and the cruelty of the executioners goosebumps. There are many methods of implementing the death penalty, and each of them is even more severe and inventive than the other. The past of all mankind was so cruel and atrocious that life was worthless, and hundreds of people died in painful torture. The most terrible executions of the ancient world have long been a thing of the past, but you can read about some of them in the historical literature.
The toughness of the Persians
The most terrible and painful executions have gone on since the time of the ancient Persians. One such method consisted of tying the victim to a tree, leaving only the limbs. They were then fed honey and milk to induce diarrhea. The body of the victim was coated with sweet and sticky honey to attract as many insects as possible. They, in turn, multiplied in feces and his skin. The victim died in agony a few weeks later from septic shock and dehydration.
Elephant execution
In Carthage, Rome and the countries of Asia, the death sentence was carried out with the help of an animal, namely an elephant. Asian elephants were trained for more than one year and could, both kill the victim immediately, and in turn, slowly break bones one after another.
Many European travelers describe this method of execution in their observations. Using a similar method of killing a person, the Asian rulers demonstrated that they are the rightful rulers of not only people, but also animals. Basically, this method of execution was used for prisoners of war.
European brutality
But the executions of Rome and Carthage did not end there. A crowd of onlookers gathered in the amphitheaters to watch as huge, wild tigers and lions tore to death the criminals released into the arena. This execution was a holiday for everyone, and whole families came to watch it.
In that era, there was another terrible execution - this is crucifixion. Thus, the Son of God Jesus Christ was executed. The man was stripped, beaten with sticks, thrown with stones, and then forced to carry his cross to the place of execution. On the hill, the cross was buried in the ground and a man was nailed to it with huge nails. The convict died long and painfully from thirst and painful shock. This method of execution was mainly used for criminals who committed more than one atrocity.
The worst executions in the world were in Russia. The victims of such reprisals were primarily those who committed crimes against the government, as well as those associated with sex, culture and religion. Since that time, such an expression has gone: to impale. This was the execution itself, when a man was impaled, slowly piercing his body through and through. People were dying of hellish pain for several days.
Ancient Egypt was also famous for its method of execution. This method was called “wall punishment”. The name speaks for itself. People were simply walled up alive in the wall and they died of suffocation. The composer Verdi, in his opera Aida, describes this moment when the main character and her lover are sentenced to such a punishment.
Celestial executions
The most brutal in the history of mankind were the Chinese. How the execution would take place, the executioners and judges themselves came up with. Their fantasies cannot be compared with others in their ingenuity. One way was to stretch the person over the young bamboo shoots. Since the plant itself grows quickly, for several days the bamboo entered a person like a spear and continued to grow in his body. The slow death of a person came in torment.
It was in China that they invented to bury a living person in the ground, and he died there of suffocation. Another way of torturing and suffering a person for a long time was death from a thousand cuts. If the criminal was sentenced to a year of torment, then the executioner extended this execution for a year. Every day he came to the criminal's cell, cut off a small part of the body. After that, he immediately cauterized the wound with fire to stop the blood and the person did not die.
And from day to day, the procedure was repeated for a year, until the person died. Moreover, if the executioner did not cope with the task at hand and the convicted person died before the appointed time, an equally painful death awaited him.
The worst executions in human history have been applied to Chinese women. They were simply cut in half. It is worth noting that they sawed them for any reason and because of any offense. The women were undressed, hung by their hands on rings, and sharp saws were fixed between their legs. Naturally, they could not hang for a long time and sawed themselves to the very breasts.
We have considered some of the most terrible executions in the entire history of mankind, but this is just a small part of the sophisticated fantasy of our ancestors. Various cultures also used such a method of execution as skinning alive. The person was simply tied to a table or a pillar and the skin was cut off in small pieces. All this happened in front of other people, and for many it was entertainment. Death came from blood loss and pain shock.
The execution of "Wheel" belongs to the same mass events. The victim was tied to a rotating wheel, and the executioner inflicted chaotic blows on various parts of the body. After such torture, a person was left to die in front of the entire crowd.
Execution of the criminal world
One of the last types of executions of our time, originally from Africa. This method of execution was used repeatedly by criminal groups. The essence of the execution was that a person was put on rubber tires, doused with gasoline and set on fire. The man simply burned to death, screaming in pain.
The death penalty in modern civilized society is prohibited in many countries of the world, but countries such as China still apply this capital punishment for very serious crimes. Of course, such cruelty as in antiquity is no longer found. In modern society, the death penalty is used in the form of: shooting, lethal injection or the electric chair. Today the criminal dies instantly.