assyrian torture methods

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. Scenes of similar punishments can be seen on excavated Assyrian materials. 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. 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. Accused of attending anti-regime protests, al-Drubi, 42, was detained in 2012. Vikings discovering North America. Keelhauling, which dates back in 800 B.C. Survival time would vary from a few minutes to several days, depending on how the stake was inserted. Royal edicts dating from the time of Ashurnasirpal II glorify the deed, proclaiming I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. A still from S2E4 of Game of Thrones, depicting the historical rat torture. Using a heated vessel to contain the vermin close to the human, the rodent, growing increasingly desperate to escape its own suffering, is compelled to burrow into the flesh of the victim. The men worked in a three-year cycle. . 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. Diederik Sonoy, an ally of the revolts leader, William of Orange, allegedly used pottery bowls filled with rats to enact the torture and elicit information. Nearly 3,000 years ago, a nation few remember today swept through the Middle-East. A ritualized method of torture and execution, the Viking practice of the blood eagle stands among the most brutal and controversial of historical tortures. marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, although a last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, attempted to rescue A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. Lingchi, known colloquially in the West as death by a thousand cuts, was a ritualistic form of torture prevalent in Imperial China. Attached to a spiked wall, the unfortunate woman would be attached to the mechanism and pulled along by her breasts until they were torn from her. This was Assyriathe first nation to make its military might its central policy and the first nation to torment its enemies with psychological warfare. "The name of the person who tortured me was Somar al Wahid. $iU-PGiSit::")SD.@&qk=mUi/6d07*w` The ultimately fatal fires were started from the feet, in order to prolong the suffering for those so condemned. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. scalping). Its territory covered approximately . Wikimedia Commons. Gradually, his body was consumed after seventeen days of being eaten from both within and without. [citation needed]. Appearing also in Malay history and culture, it has been contended the Siamese employed sprouts from the Nipah palm in an identical fashion to bamboo torture during the 1821 invasion of Kedah. The British Museum. Generally, an attempt is made to keep the removed portion of skin intact. While some claimed that it was a fast procedure which lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. The Babylonian destruction of their capital city Nineveh in 612 B.C. Those convicted, commonly murderers and robbers, would be broken by the wheel for their sins, whereupon they were staked out and endured having their limbs broken. The former, a bi-pronged fork attached to a belt around the victims neck, unflinchingly secured the angle of the head. Their artistic propaganda relishes every detail of torture, massacre, battlefield executions and human displacement that made Assyria the dominant power of the Middle East from about 900 to. VEerzLB(%_E|=".hq%%}]|~8P[Cxwf{7B_`s@jKSbJAsxAP,XRY\HmY8@iCK3rT ,4 _f,alNsg3kCQ87{i$js/8ZuU5{3{$\^75Bp,?q[Y0WB:Zi>PTYa,j0a'Np^ee6d1}$|>U}co~UE~OeXm7lfb}@;`b\v+Tu:2ylCYac0A-z~wg0y'4>-{3Qka3EJ?4uObNW=IeZ6oKq'Rcca.PvFz4Mw_Wsn>!);? }?9{we#5SS"&~j[}mwD { 4A6*({[OUq.-1!>4?izc^(a7-=HkN{i,J~WnxjWwcON>Egjmd.pC =r*5o@/g e_?+\ VO7o:\~{[eWirG7a{8Nx?= 9^+:2Z After the collapse of the Akkadians, Assyria gradually emerged as an independent political power around the 14th century BCE. A 1593 engraved illustration of vertical impalement; author unknown. Medium.com, Vestal Virgins: Chaste keepers of the flame, Melissa Dowling, Biblical Archaeological Society (2001), Rethinking Nero, BYROBERT DRAPER. Designed during the reign of the tyrant Phalaris (r. 570-554 BCE) by Perillos of Athens, the bull, as recorded by Diodorus Siculus, was supposedly made from bronze but hollowed out and with a door on one side. 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. The earliest recorded instances of intentional live burials date from 212 BCE in China, where, during the persecution of subversives by the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, approximately 460 Confucian scholars were buried alive. 0000001680 00000 n Shakespeare referenced the practice in The Winters Tale, whilst the legendary fictitious hunter Allan Quartermain experiences a vision of the brutal technique. A standing army is one made up of professional soldiers whose only job is to fight. As the device was manipulated, it would slowly but surely shred the breast apart rendering it useless. 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 Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. I don't think torturers can be human. Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). The most recent confirmed case occurred in New Jersey in 2010, when David Wax threatened a kidnap victim with rat torture. There were no accurate details of how this method of execution was carried out. Appearing repeatedly throughout modern popular film, television, and literature, rat torture is an especially cruel method of punishment. While imprisoned, al-Drubi suffered many forms of abuse. "They hung us up from our wrists to the ceilings. endstream endobj 447 0 obj<> endobj 448 0 obj<> endobj 449 0 obj<>stream In the medieval ages, torture was used to punish heretical behavior and sexual offenders. Wikimedia Commons. But if not, the executioner would proceed with the second act, which is braiding the convicts broken body into another wheel. 10 Times Britain Was Successfully Invaded, Top 10 Must-See Recent Genre-Defying Horrors, The Listverse Compendium Of 113 Halloween Horrors, 10 Men Suspected Of Being Jack The Ripper (Who, 10 Ways Being Attractive Can Work Against You, 10 People Who Willingly Returned To Being Prisoners, Bizarre Police Vehicles That Are Actually Being Used, 8 Dark Facts About Being Single, And Why You Really, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, eat their own excrement and drink their own urine, necklaces with their kings heads on them, 10 Forgotten Battles That Changed World History, 10 Stages in the History of Drinking Parties, 10 Letters From Everyday People On The Other Side Of History, 10 Eccentric Ways To Obtain A Medal Of Honor. Torturemuseum.net. 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. *H{kI)-wr`-4'DL Xoi)0Mo)ls}T[3 t0p`CF/.Dr7!aLpjBO*\NbaosG.^({B$JGfWtf}-GQEN]3;TFyebpn$D. That meant being skinned alive, having noses and ears chopped off, and whatever torments they could imagine. Scaphism was a Persian method of execution. Centuries later, the Roman Emperor Hadrian reputedly used such a device to torture and kill Christians. Thereafter, the pulped remains of the still-living criminal were strapped to the wheel itself and erected on a pole, akin to a crucifixion, until death. 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. By the reign of Queen Margaret I of Denmark (r. 1387-1412 CE), female adultery was punished with premature burial (whilst men merely got off with a quick beheading), and until 1689 Russia employed the torturous experience as punishment for the murder of a husband. Their torturers would continuously hurl verbal abuse at the prisoners, al-Drubi recounted. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. Sometimes, the executioner would be instructed to aim for the convicts heart or neck to cause immediate death. Aside from inflicting agonizing pain, one of the main purposes of this method was to inflict severe humiliation upon the victim. V)gB0iW8#8w8_QQj@&A)/g>'K t;\ $FZUn(4T%)0C&Zi8bxEB;PAom?W= The Zhengde Emperor flayed six rebels,[9] and Zhang Xianzhong also flayed many people. 0000003095 00000 n Jung provides some examples of this triumphant rhetoric. Every Assyrian man, from the poorest to the richest, was required to serve in the army. The horrors and the guilt of murdering and torturing innocent people wreaked havoc on their psyches. In 1323, the Mexica tribe asked for Yaocihuatl, daughter of Achicometl, ruler of Culhuacan in marriage. 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. 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. 0000005655 00000 n The medieval Europe used it as part of the public execution of traitors. Impalement was the act of penetrating a sharp stake through the body. Unlike immurement, where the victims suffer for days or possibly weeks, those buried alive most commonly die long before dehydration takes effect. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. 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. Decreeing that Mithridates should be put to death in boats, two were framed exactly to fit his body to prevent escape. These kind of artifacts are very common. One Assyrian King, named Ashurnasirpal II, has left a whole series of these tablets behind, and the descriptions are positively terrifying. Crucifixion, an ancient method of capital punishment, is perhaps the most famous means of torture in history due to its association with the Christian narrative of Jesus. Trapping a condemned prisoner, the individual would be force-fed milk and honey as well as coated in the foodstuffs. The use of rats in this manner is believed to have originated in Europe, with two variants of the practice emerging concurrently. "The torturer asked me where I was from. The Ancient Assyrians Flayed Their Enemies To Frighten Them Stone carvings from the time of ancient Assyria around 800 B.C.E. Victory Stele of Eannatum, King of Lagash, Called the Vulture Steleearly dynastic period, c. 2450 bc. Among the alleged cruelties bestowed upon these religious minorities was the so-called Roman Candle. xb```b``Ig`a`Qgb@ !+s\bQRR; 434 0 obj<> endobj I flayed many right through my land and draped their skins over the walls, he boasts in one. Several variations of the device existed, reflecting its use in a number of circumstances. Some of the accounts detailing Blood Eagle claim that it was used mainly for revenge and sometimes, pure contempt. CONTENTS. With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870. . 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. Most famously, bamboo torture was alleged to have been used during World War II by the Japanese Empire against Allied prisoners of war. 1p18i!J 8? Since the conflict, questions have habitually been raised concerning whether bamboo is actually capable of inflicting the injuries claimed by survivors. Flaying, also known as skinning, was a torture method which originated from 883-859 BC and documented in both carvings and official royal edicts. Thats exactly the experience of modern-day soldiers whove been involved in close hand-to-hand combat.. Ernst G. Jung, in his Kleine Kulturgeschichte der Haut ("A short cultural history of the skin"), provides an essay in which he outlines the Neo-Assyrian tradition of flaying human beings. I burned their adolescent boys and girls. Using an intricate system of tubes and piping, the screams of the roasting prisoner were transmuted into sounds reminiscent of a raging bull. The city and its houses, from its foundations to its top, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, Seenacherib declared. These horrific and brutal images would surly make any enemy fear the wrath of Lagash. An illustration of execution by breaking wheel in Augsburg, Bavaria (c. 1586). The Assyrians, though, had some of the first siege weapons in the world. 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. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. Unknown to him, she was sacrificed, with the priest appearing during the festival dinner wearing her skin as part of the ritual. In 1303, the treasury of Westminster Abbey was robbed while holding a large sum of money belonging to King Edward I. This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. He used rat torture, along with other methods, to punish his political enemies and sexually assault his prisoners. There, the prisoners suffered being coated in pitch, oil and other flammable substances, before being set alight. The Flaying of Marsyas, by Titian (c. 1576). The dermatologist Ernst G. Jung says that the main causes of death due to skinning . More often than not, though, the surviving men would be put through the hells they used to psychologically terrify the world. If the individual survives the initial shock and avoids critical loss of blood during the torture, then they will likely die days later due to infection. And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. The sketch is from a wall relief depicting the Assyrians torturing their captives. 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. Their kingdom which lasted for some 2000 years in an area (which is now Northern Iraq) had no natural barriers as such to protect their homeland. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. 0000006055 00000 n When they came to your town, the men at the gates were vicious and battle-hardened. The Rassam cylinder in the British Museum describes this: Their corpses they hung on stakes, they took off their skins and covered the city wall with them.[3]. The origins of the torture date to as early as ancient Babylon, with the Code of Hammurabi (c. 1772 BCE) detailing the punishment of impalement for women convicted of murdering her husband. trailer From here, he was transferred to the Hama military airport, where he was beaten upon arrival, stripped naked, interrogated and tortured. This torture method apparently had a long tradition in Scandinavia and a couple of direct accounts were mentioned in old skaldic poems. The victim was forced to carry their crossbeam to the place of public execution, weighing an estimated 100 lbs, where they would be displayed. As with all human endeavors, we gradually perfected the art of torture over the centuries, refining the necessary tools to inflict the greatest possible pain upon our unfortunate victims.