assyrian torture methods
Sometimes, they got creative. This would result to the body looking like a spread eagle, thus the name of the torture method. Their skin was attached to three doors as a warning against robbers of church and state. They pioneered the use of terror as a weaponand they made the lives of their enemies a living horror story. They brought us to the military base in the village of Dayr al-Shimal in western Hama, where they beat us with plastic tubes," he told Anadolu Agency. These kind of artifacts are very common. 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. 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. The convicted would be taken to a public stage and tied on the floor. After several centuries of obscurity and even loss of independence from around 1400 B.C. This article has been adapted from its original source. %PDF-1.4 % Sign up to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content, Sign up to get Al Bawaba's exclusive celeb scoops and entertainment news, Syrian Man Reveals Worst Torture Methods Used by the Regime, Serie A: AC Milan vs Tottenham predicted lineups, Rihanna didn't get paid for her Super Bowl show, Awadallah jailed for sedition goes on hunger strike. The cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the ripping out of the heart were all standard punishments in this corner of the ancient world (Hamblin). More commonly appearing as a form of human sacrifice, however, many civilizations employed immurement as part of funerary rituals. }U|m?2H:3^`t5`Sh;V"DV;m -6A:'O!K2dO'qX,VAUu5GqMQ=2@nDA`N`6u90]p*1+Js. The nobles and elders of the city came out to me to save their lives, he declared. The men worked in a three-year cycle. The principle of crushing bones and limbs was a popular form of torture in medieval times, mainly because the devices used were simple to design and make. Murderers were handed over to the victims family, who were free to do with them as they willed. In the sixth season of the television series, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 13:11. Flaying. His prolonged exposure and his flesh rotting away due to his own filth and the insects devouring him would eventually lead to his horrifying demise. Centuries later, Tacitus noted Germanic tribes practicing a ritual form of capital punishment, whereby those convicted of cowardice and other shameful vices were buried face down in mud. A notable figure who enjoyed this method of torture was the Prince of Wallachia, Vlad III. 2y.-;!KZ ^i"L0- @8(r;q7Ly&Qq4j|9 For example, Neo-Assyrian kings used it to punish rebel leaders. The United States has continued to use the method as recently as 2003, when, under interrogation by the CIA, Manadel al-Jamadi was killed after just 30 minutes at Abu Ghraib Prison. Recorded in England, beginning in 1531 during the reign of Henry VIII, being boiled alive became the legally prescribed method of capital punishment for those convicted of high treason or murder by poison. updated March 25, 2018, 6:05 pm, by HBO. 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. The "strappado", also known as "corda", is a longstanding, simple, but nonetheless effective method of torture involving tying a victim's hands behind their back. Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he had designed and built for Phalaris, by Pierre Woeiriot (c. 1532-1562). And some sent tributes to Assyria before they ever looked their way, surrendering before theyd even approached to keep them away. The latter depicted in the popular television series Vikings, is recorded in the Tale of Ragnars Sons, describing the English kings torture at the hands of Ivar the Boneless. He was known for his harsh punishments upon his enemies, especially those who had betrayed his family and took advantage of the misfortunes of Wallachia. Any outsider who would gaze upon the monument would know not to mess with Lagash. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. 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 brazen bull, also known as the Sicilian Bull, was a disputed torture device allegedly stemming from Ancient Greece, specifically the city-state of Akragas. . Reserved for crimes of an especially heinous nature, notably treason, mass murder, or the killing of close family members, lingchi was designed as a cruel method of causing incrementally unbearable agony for its victims. . The Assyrian Empire originally began as a small city-state under the Akkadian Empire, which dominated Mesopotamia from 2334 - 2154 BCE. 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. The king of Urartu, upon hearing the Assyrian army approach, stabbed himself in the chest rather than face them. Frequently using oil, tar, or tallow, various cultures and civilizations spanning Europe and Asia are known to have employed boiling as a means of inflicting great pain upon condemned persons. The method was done by tying the victim in a wooden frame and then cutting the flesh in varied, multiple and non-deadly slices. depict warriors methodically removing the skin from prisoners' bodies, marking them as one of the first cultures to partake in the brutal torture. Christ on the Cross, by Carl Bloch (c. 1870). Rat torture was first documented in 17th century Europe during the Dutch Revolt, with the technique being used against captured prisoners. As the Assyrian Empire grew, they built a standing army. A dead animal may be flayed when preparing it to be used as human food, or for its hide or fur. Nevertheless, the ancient Roman Candles signify the first organized persecutions of Christians under the Romans. It was one of the ideas that made Assyria so strong. Attracting bugs and vermin, whilst also inducing diarrhea to lure additional parasites, the victim would be gradually consumed by the animals as they fed upon them. 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. Wikimedia Commons. The victim was forced to carry their crossbeam to the place of public execution, weighing an estimated 100 lbs, where they would be displayed. The victims had mainly their faces flayed off, while they were still alive. %%EOF marks the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, although a last Assyrian king, Ashur-uballit II, attempted to rescue The victim would suffer hours of agonizing pain as the rats dig a hole through his body, after which he would inevitably die. 4. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic. The Babylonian destruction of their capital city Nineveh in 612 B.C. 0000001622 00000 n Assyrian art shows a parade of their slaves chained to large stones, being forced to drag massive rocks like mules. 0000002742 00000 n CONTENTS. The practice is known to have occurred in extreme instances in Japan, where, during the 16th century, the bandit Ishikawa Goemon, along with his entire family, were boiled alive in a giant bathtub as punishment for the failed assassination of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Using an intricate system of tubes and piping, the screams of the roasting prisoner were transmuted into sounds reminiscent of a raging bull. 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. 0000003018 00000 n scalping). Assyrian torture method. While imprisoned, al-Drubi suffered many forms of abuse. Instead, asphyxiation is the most common cause of death in live burials, with the individual, unless carefully buried, unable to breathe. The Assyrians were so brutal that their military campaigns even put themselves through hell. The Assyrian empire dominated Mesopotamia and all of the Near East for the first half of the first millennium B.C.E., led by a series of highly ambitious and aggressive warrior kings. This is a slow and painful execution, with causes of death ranging from blood loss, hypothermia, or infections. Their torturers would continuously hurl verbal abuse at the prisoners, al-Drubi recounted. xref In fact, impalement, if done properly, permits the individual to survive for several days, with the longest known victim suffering for more than eight days. A torturous, if infrequent method of historical execution, death by boiling kills an individual by immersing them in a container of blistering liquid. A similar variant of the implement, the Iron Spider, was a less portable alternative. But if not, the executioner would proceed with the second act, which is braiding the convicts broken body into another wheel. [6] The Hongwu Emperor flayed many servants, officials and rebels. After the arrest and interrogation of 48 monks, three of them, including the subprior and sacrist, were found guilty of the robbery and flayed. The namesake for this torture was the Christian martyr, Saint Catherine. Corey refused to enter a plea and only asked for more weights during the torture. "The name of the person who tortured me was Somar al Wahid. . Flaying, also known as skinning, is a method of torture (and often execution) whereby the skin of the victim is gradually removed from the body in a precise fashion. In the case of very crime for which there is penalty of the cutting-off of ear or nose, the law said, as it is written it shall be carried out.. Wikimedia Commons. . Syrian man, 42 recounts horrors in regime imprisonment, from having boiling water poured over him to reverse hanging. BCE) detailing the punishment of impalement for women convicted of murdering her husband. In the ancient Far East, where there were large states peopled by many different ethnicities, leaders demonstrated their might by inventing ingenious new tortures and agonizing methods of execution as a way to keep the population obedient. With the practice gradually watered down due to public opposition to its brutality, it was eventually abolished entirely in 1870. Method of slow and painful execution in which skin is removed from the body, sfn error: no target: CITEREFRassam_Cylinder._The_British_Museum.636BC (, Htel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, Rassam Cylinder. When they came to your town, the men at the gates were vicious and battle-hardened. This usually results in lacerations, infection, and scarring, since the ships hull is covered in barnacles. A standing army is one made up of professional soldiers whose only job is to fight. The use of rats in this manner is believed to have originated in Europe, with two variants of the practice emerging concurrently. A ritualized method of torture and execution, the Viking practice of the blood eagle stands among the most brutal and controversial of historical tortures. Although people think that torture is an effective method, because of Applebaum's successful use of logos, diction . Assyrian International News Agency Books Online www.aina.org. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. 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. The Church used torture to force others to convert to Christianity and because the Church used torture, government authorities used the same means too. Hypothesized to originate from the Kingdom of the Franks, by the time of the Holy Roman Empire it formed a staple of the legal system. These kind of artifacts are very common. Aside from inflicting agonizing pain, one of the main purposes of this method was to inflict severe humiliation upon the victim. Gradually, his body was consumed after seventeen days of being eaten from both within and without. 0000001680 00000 n The medieval Europe used it as part of the public execution of traitors. Top 10 risk factors an airplane is in danger, 10 Most Controversial Athletes of All Time, 10 Biggest Celebrity Scandals and Controversies of Hollywood, Hot Bolivian Women: Meet The 10 Most Beautiful Girl from Bolivia, Top 10 Most Beautiful and Hottest Cambodian Women, The 10 best women volleyball players in the world. 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. The city and its houses, from its foundations to its top, I destroyed, I devastated, I burned with fire, Seenacherib declared. updated March 31, 2020, 8:32 pm, by The method can be traced all the way back to 911 BC, where it was practiced by the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Activists are now calling on Congress to place more sanctions . After llas capture at York in 867, they caused the bloody eagle to be carved on the back of lla, and they cut away all of the ribs from the spine, and then they ripped out his lungs. The Assyrians created tablets that showed them torturing their enemies to let the next city know what was coming. 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- Neros Torches, depicting the martyrdom of a group of early Christians in Rome, by Henryk Siemiradzki (c. 1876). The purpose of the stele is to display the power and ferocity of the Lagashistes. 0000006301 00000 n "The torturer asked me where I was from. The blood eagle - a ritualized method of torture and execution allegedly practiced by the Norse Vikings - opened up the ribs of the victim to craft their lungs into wings. Scaphism was a Persian method of execution. Captured soldiers were supposedly tied above infant bamboo shoots, which, over the course of several days, would grow at a rapid pace and pierce the prisoners. It has been suggested, without corroboration, that these candles were used as decorations during formal parties held by Nero. In order for the method to work, it had to take place in a swamp or somewhere where the boats could lie exposed to the sun. This form of execution became famous when Giles Corey, an American farmer charged with witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials. Grisly Assyrian Record of Torture and Death. 10. The Premature Burial, by Antoine Wiertz (c. 1854). The Assyrians were known for being very barbaric when it came to torturing slaves and prisoners of war. A still from S2E4 of Game of Thrones, depicting the historical rat torture. Whilst some intended to kill, albeit resulting in slow, torturous deaths, others were intended to merely maim and hurt without fatal outcomes. . However, a 2008 Mythbusters investigation verified that bamboo shoots can penetrate several inches of ballistic gelatin (comparable in strength to the human skin) in less than three days. HWF}Wc/ v2`L&_Tu1M*$qt{o_|eo? Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. The stake would be hammered in with a mallet, and it would come out at either his breast, head, or shoulders. 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. Make peace with me and come out to me! the envoy called out. From here, he was transferred to the Hama military airport, where he was beaten upon arrival, stripped naked, interrogated and tortured. "Assad's forces detained me, my four siblings and other men in the village. Both were commonly inscribed with the Latin phrase abiruo I recant: an objective often achieved due to the eventual breaking of the subjects will. Skinning was a torture method used in various civilizations throughout history and it involves removing a portion of skin from a human being while still alive (although in some cases it is carried out post-mortem) and trying to keep intact the portion removed. As both accounts were written many years after the events detailed, their veracity cannot be fully ascertained. Victory Stele of Eannatum, King of Lagash, Called the Vulture Steleearly dynastic period, c. 2450 bc. This is more commonly called skinning . Maria When the Assyrian king Seenacherib invaded Babylon, he wiped them off the map. 0000001458 00000 n The women had it even worse. and remained in use up to the 19th century. Abstract and Figures. [7][8] Hai Rui suggested that his emperor flay corrupt officials. December 23, 2019, 10:09 am, by He wrote, I hung the heads of the kings upon the shoulders of their nobles, and with singing and music I paraded.. During Mesopotamian times, wars were what divided ruling periods. Wikimedia Commons. 10, The Strappado, by Jacques Callot (c. 1633). Equally, in 1675 the Sikh martyr Bhai Dayala was subjected to boiling after refusing to convert to Islam; according to legend, as he burned Dayala calmly recited Sikh scripture. Execution of Thomas Armstrong in 1684 (c. 1698). Executions have often served as a kind of revenge, a way of inflicting pain and mental torture on the convict. The judges of ancient Babylon were particularly enthusiastic about instilling fear in wrong doers, prisoners of war, or anyone that needed to be punished for any type of crime. In this method, the victim is stripped naked and tied down to the ground. As a method of both torture and execution, impalement consists of the aggressive penetration of victims by a pole. The boot. Every person watching their chariots approach would know that, compared to the fate the Assyrian army brought, death would be a relief. 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. 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]. 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. While some claimed that it was a fast procedure which lasted from 15 to 20 minutes. 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. 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. The horrors and the guilt of murdering and torturing innocent people wreaked havoc on their psyches. Middle Ages Torture, devices, techniques and facts. The cutting off of feet, lips and noses, blinding, gutting and the tearing out of the heart were all standard punishments in this. Among the alleged cruelties bestowed upon these religious minorities was the so-called Roman Candle. The Assyrian soldiers were trained in siege warfare, battle tactics, and hand-to-hand . The society also used torture to persecute others for their religious affiliations. Wikimedia Commons. The Judas Cradle is a stool-shaped torture device with a pyramid structure on top. As a form of punishment, crucifixion exists still today, notably in Saudi Arabia and Iran, where the most recent known occurrences of crucifixion occurred as recently as the early 2000s. It shows the decapitated heads of the enemy Ummite soldiers being carried away by vultures. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site status, or. Gadd, Cambridge University Press (1965), Viking atrocity and Skaldic verse: The Rite of the Blood Eagle, Roberta Frank, English Historical Review (1984), Torture and Brutality in Medieval Literature: Negotiations of National Identity, Larissa Tracy, D.S. is known as the Neo-Assyrian period, during which the empire reached its zenith. N')].uJr An envoy would ride up to the city walls, knowing the fear the people there already felt, and would promise them that if they bowed down and paid tribute to Assyria, they would be allowed to live. My skin peeled off. 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.. Keelhauling, which dates back in 800 B.C. He was executed by pressing. The Iraq Government, as was anticipated, employed methods to cause dissension among the Assyrians, taking on its side certain individuals with whom Thomson was instructed to carry out Iraq's policy. In at least one case, an Assyrian king made the women lift their skirts over their heads and march blindly after their captors. Suspending the individual by a rope attached to the wrists, with weights added, if necessary, to increase the pain. Public Domain. An illustrated depiction of the heretics fork in practice. The men of Assyrian army reported experiences that modern psychologists say show wide-spread symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Some crimes were dealt with in savage ways. Mark Oliver is a regular contributor to Listverse. But some argue that there was a degree of dismemberment, and there were times when the subsequent cuts were carried out after the victims death as a form of public humiliation. Flaying, also known as skinning, was a torture method which originated from 883-859 BC and documented in both carvings and official royal edicts. Torturemuseum.net. Flaying of humans is used as a method of torture or execution, depending on how much of the skin is removed. These showed them skinning their victims alive, blinding them, and impaling them on stakes. endstream endobj 447 0 obj<> endobj 448 0 obj<> endobj 449 0 obj<>stream The ultimately fatal fires were started from the feet, in order to prolong the suffering for those so condemned. The practice of flaying was popularized under the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 9th century BCE, with carvings dating to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BCE) depicting the gruesome details. A 1593 engraved illustration of vertical impalement; author unknown. The victim would either be rocked or dropped repeatedly onto the device, and the torture would usually be prolonged into several days. 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. Although theres no exact date as to its origins. A millennium later, the Neo-Assyrian King Sennacherib (r. 705-681 BCE) is recorded as impaling surviving Judeans after the Siege of Lachish. Torture is unpleasant, as indeed is the intended purpose of the practice. n3kGz=[==B0FX'+tG,}/Hh8mW2p[AiAN#8$X?AKHI{!7. Equally, their hands and feet might be tied together to make balancing even harder or oil poured over the chair. Ejaz Khan He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. 436 0 obj<>stream 0000008971 00000 n Whilst flaying after death has been historically recorded, typically as a means of debasing the enemys honor and reserved for instances such as criminality, the predominant occurrences took place during life. Louvre, Tello (ancient Girsu). The strappado is so damaging that it cannot last for more than an hour without reprieve or risk of killing the subject. Assyria emerged as a territorial state in the 14th century B.C. Some of the accounts detailing Blood Eagle claim that it was used mainly for revenge and sometimes, pure contempt. This torture method apparently had a long tradition in Scandinavia and a couple of direct accounts were mentioned in old skaldic poems. The British Museum. Every young man was expected to train as a warrior and be ready to fight. They invented the battering ram, a device that would have seemed completely unstoppable in their time. 0000000689 00000 n Survival time would vary from a few minutes to several days, depending on how the stake was inserted. (e.g. The Blood Eagle is a haunting form of execution used by the Vikings. "F$H:R!zFQd?r9\A&GrQhE]a4zBgE#H *B=0HIpp0MxJ$D1D, VKYdE"EI2EBGt4MzNr!YK ?%_&#(0J:EAiQ(()WT6U@P+!~mDe!hh/']B/?a0nhF!X8kc&5S6lIa2cKMA!E#dV(kel }}Cq9 One Assyrian king recorded sparing some of the people he invaded but only after they shamelessly humbled themselves before him. Subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive updates and enhanced content, A member of the Syrian Democratic Forces guards IS suspects in north-east Syria. The miseries of war: No. [10] Lu Xun said the Ming dynasty was begun and ended by flaying.[11]. Assyrians can be undoubtedly termed as the Nazis of the biblical world. "Torture and the . These horrific and brutal images would surly make any enemy fear the wrath of Lagash. 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. Wikimedia Commons. The fragment above is part of the Stele of Vultures. Since the victim would most likely lose consciousness after one or two severe wounds. V)gB0iW8#8w8_QQj@&A)/g>'K t;\ $FZUn(4T%)0C&Zi8bxEB;PAom?W= [citation needed]. The method was reborn during the modern age across Latin America, with its use recorded under the military dictatorships of Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The wheel would be erected like a pole, and the executioner would be permitted to decapitate the convict. 0000001205 00000 n Pressing as a form of punishment dates back to the 13th century in England. Similarly, neck traps prevented the victim from adjusting the angle of their neck to a more comfortable position.
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