The most terrible executions of the ancient world. executions

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, under pain of a harsh 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 in use.

The Falaris bull, also known as the copper bull, is an ancient execution tool 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 in the side. It had enough space to accommodate a person. The victim was placed inside, the door was closed, and a fire was kindled under the belly of the statue. There were holes in the head and nostrils that allowed the cries of the man inside to be heard, which were like the growl of a bull.

Interestingly, the creator of the copper bull, Perilaus, was the first to test the device in action on the orders of the tyrant Falaris. The railing was removed from the bull while still alive, and then thrown off the cliff. Falarid himself also suffered the same fate - death in a bull.

Hanging, gutting and quartering - 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 convicted of treason, she was burned alive. Incredibly, this method was legal and relevant until 1814.

First of all, the convict was tied to a horse-drawn wooden sleigh and dragged to the place of death. Then the offender was hung and, just a few moments before death, was taken out of the noose and laid on the table. After that, the executioner castrated and gutted the victim, burning the insides 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 Pepys, witnessing one of these executions, described it in his famous diary:

“In the morning I met Captain Cuttens, 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 the current situation. He was removed from the noose, then his head was cut off and his heart taken out, showing the crowd, which caused general jubilation. Previously, he judged, and now he was judged.

Usually, all five parts of the executed were sent to different parts of the country, where they were defiantly installed on the gallows as a warning to others.

There were two ways to be burned alive. In the first, the convict was tied to a stake and surrounded with firewood and brushwood, so that he burned inside the flame. It is said that this is how Joan of Arc was burned. Another way was that a person was placed on top of a pile of firewood, bundles of brushwood and tied with ropes or chains to a post, so that the flame slowly rose towards him, gradually covering his entire body.

When the execution was carried out by a skilled executioner, the victim burned in the following sequence: ankles, thighs and arms, torso and forearms, chest, face, and finally, the person died. Needless to say, it was very painful. If a a large number of people had to be burned at the same time, the victims died from carbon monoxide before the fire reached them. And if the fire was weak, then the victim usually died from shock, blood loss, or heat stroke.

In the later versions of this execution, the offender 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.

Lingchi is a particularly painful method of execution by cutting off small fragments from the body for a long period of time. Practiced in China until 1905. The victim was slowly cut off the arms, legs and chest, until finally the head was cut off and stabbed right 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 this way:

“The offender was tied to a cross, and the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, began, 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 by one the nose and ears, fingers. Then the limbs were cut off piece by piece 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 Catherine's Wheel, is a medieval execution device. The man was tied to a wheel. After that, all the large bones of the body were broken with an iron hammer and left to die. The wheel was placed on the top of the pillar, giving the birds the opportunity to profit sometimes from a still living body. This could go on for several days until the person died of pain shock or dehydration.

In France, some indulgences were provided in the execution, when the convict 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 with a cold liquid, which was gradually heated. Criminals could be hung on a chain and immersed in boiling water until they died. During the reign of King Henry VIII, a similar execution was carried out for poisoners and counterfeiters.

Flaying meant execution, during which all the skin was removed from the body of the criminal, with the help of 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 on the cross upside down, and his skin was torn off.

The Assyrians skinned their enemies to show who held power in the captured cities. Among the Aztecs in Mexico, ritual flaying or scalping was common, which was usually performed after the death of the victim.

Although this method of execution has long been considered inhumane and forbidden, in Myanmar, there has been a recorded case of flaying all the men in Karenni village.

African necklace - a type of execution, during which a car tire filled with gasoline or other combustible material was put on the victim, and then set on fire. This led to the fact that the human body turned into a molten mass. Death was extremely painful and was a shocking sight. 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 towns as a means of bypassing the apartheid judiciary (a policy of racial segregation). In this way, members of the community who were considered employees of the regime were punished, including black police officers, city officials, as well as their relatives and partners.

Similar executions have been observed in Brazil, Haiti and Nigeria during Muslim protests.

Scaphism is an ancient Persian method of execution leading to a painful death. The victim was stripped naked and tightly tied inside a narrow boat or hollowed out tree trunk, and covered with the same boat from above so that the arms, legs and head stick out. The victim was forcibly given milk and honey to drink in order to cause severe diarrhea. In addition, the body was also smeared with honey. After that, a person was allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water or left in the sun. Such a "container" attracted insects that 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. Ultimately, death occurred, most likely as a result of a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, and septic shock.

According to Plutarch, by this method in 401 BC. e. Mithridates was executed for killing Cyrus the Younger. The unfortunate man died only after 17 days. A similar method was used by the native inhabitants 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 of dehydration and starvation in a few days.

The sentenced to this execution was hung upside down and sawn 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 large 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. It is believed that sawing was the favorite way of executing the Roman emperor Caligula. In the Asian version of this execution, a person was sawn from the head.

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With the development of civilization, human life has gained value regardless of social status and wealth. It is all the more terrible to read about the black pages of history, when the law did not just deprive a person of life, but turned the execution into a spectacle for the amusement of ordinary people. In other cases, the execution could be of a ritual or instructive nature. Unfortunately, there are similar episodes in modern history. We have compiled a list of the most brutal executions ever practiced by humans.

Executions of the Ancient World

Skafism

The word "skafism" is derived from the ancient Greek word "trough", "boat", and the method itself went down in history thanks to Plutarch, who described the execution of the Greek ruler Mithridates at the behest of Artaxerxes, the king of the ancient Persians.

First, a person was stripped naked and tied inside two dugout boats in such a way that the head, arms and legs remained outside, which were thickly smeared with honey. The victim was then forcibly fed a mixture of milk and honey to induce diarrhea. After that, the boat was lowered into stagnant water - a pond or lake. Lured by the smell of honey and sewage, the insects clung to the human body, slowly devoured the flesh and laid their larvae in the formed gangrenous ulcers. The victim remained alive for up to two weeks. Death came from three factors: infection, exhaustion and dehydration.

Execution by impalement was invented in Assyria (modern Iraq). In this way, residents of rebellious cities and women who had an abortion were punished - then this procedure was considered infanticide.

The execution was carried out in two ways. In one version, the convict was pierced in the chest with a stake, in the other, the tip of the stake passed through the body through the anus. Tormented people were often depicted in bas-reliefs as an edification. Later, this execution began to be used by the peoples of the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as well as by the Slavic peoples and some European ones.

Execution by elephants

This method was used mainly in India and Sri Lanka. Indian elephants lend themselves well to training, which was used by the rulers of Southeast Asia.

There were many ways to kill a person with an elephant. For example, armor with sharp spears was put on the tusks, with which the elephant pierced the criminal and then, still alive, tore it apart. But most often, elephants were trained to press down the convict with their foot and alternately tear off the limbs with their trunk. In India, a guilty person was often simply thrown at the feet of an angry animal. For reference, an Indian elephant weighs about 5 tons.

Tradition to the beasts

Behind the beautiful phrase "Damnatio ad bestias" lies the painful death of thousands of ancient Romans, especially among the early Christians. Although, of course, this method was invented long before the Romans. Usually lions were used for execution, less popular were bears, panthers, leopards and buffaloes.

There were two types of punishment. Often a person sentenced to death was tied to a post in the middle of a gladiatorial arena and wild animals were lowered onto it. There were also variations: they threw it to a cage to a hungry animal or tied it to its back. In another case, the unfortunate was forced to fight against the beast. From the weapons they had a simple spear, and from the "armor" - a tunic. In both cases, many spectators gathered for the execution.

death on the cross

The crucifixion was invented by the Phoenicians, an ancient people of seafarers who lived in the Mediterranean. Later, this method was adopted by the Carthaginians, and then by the Romans. The Israelites and Romans considered death on the cross to be the most shameful, because this was how hardened criminals, slaves and traitors were executed.

Before crucifixion, a person was undressed, leaving only a loincloth. He was beaten with leather whips or freshly cut rods, after which he was forced to carry a cross weighing about 50 kilograms to the place of crucifixion. Having dug a cross into the ground near the road outside the city or on a hill, a person was lifted with ropes and nailed to a horizontal bar. Sometimes the convict's legs were crushed with an iron rod beforehand. Death came from exhaustion, dehydration or pain shock.

After the prohibition of Christianity in feudal Japan in the 17th century. crucifixion was used against visiting missionaries and Japanese Christians. The scene of execution on the cross is present in Martin Scorsese's drama Silence, which tells about this period.

Bamboo execution

The ancient Chinese were champions of sophisticated torture and execution. One of the most exotic methods of killing is the stretching of the culprit over the growing shoots of young bamboo. The sprouts made their way through the human body for several days, causing incredible suffering to the executed.

ling chi

"Ling-chi" is translated into Russian as "bites of the sea pike." There was another name - "death by a thousand cuts." This method was used during the reign of the Qing Dynasty, and high-ranking officials convicted of corruption were executed in this way. Every year, 15-20 people were recruited.

The essence of "ling-chi" is the gradual cutting off of small parts from the body. For example, after cutting off one phalanx of the finger, the executioner cauterized the wound and then proceeded to the next one. How many pieces to cut off from the body, the court determined. The most popular verdict was cutting into 24 parts, and the most notorious criminals were sentenced to 3,000 cuts. In such cases, the victim was given opium to drink: so she did not lose consciousness, but the pain made its way even through the veil of drug intoxication.

Sometimes, as a sign of special mercy, the ruler could order the executioner to first kill the condemned with one blow and torture the corpse already. This method of execution was practiced for 900 years and was banned in 1905.

Executions of the Middle Ages

blood eagle

Historians question the existence of the Blood Eagle execution, but it is mentioned in Scandinavian folklore. This method was used by the inhabitants of the Scandinavian countries in the early Middle Ages.

The harsh Vikings killed their enemies as painfully and symbolically as possible. The man's hands were tied and laid on his stomach on a stump. The skin on the back was carefully cut with a sharp blade, then the ribs were pryed with an ax, breaking them out in a shape resembling eagle wings. After that, the lungs were removed from the still living victim and hung on the ribs.

This execution is shown twice in the Vikings series with Travis Fimmel (in episode 7 of season 2 and episode 18 of season 4), although the audience noted the contradictions between the serial execution and the one described in the Elder Edda folklore.

"Bloody Eagle" in the series "Vikings"

Tearing by trees

Such an execution was widespread in many regions of the world, including in Russia in the pre-Christian period. The victim was tied by the legs to two inclined trees, which were then abruptly released. One of the legends says that Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans in 945 - because he wanted to collect tribute from them twice.

Quartering

The method was used as in medieval Europe. Each limb was tied to horses - the animals tore the sentenced into 4 parts. In Russia, quartering was also practiced, but this word meant a completely different execution - the executioner alternately chopped off his legs with an ax, then his hands, and then his head.

wheeling

Wheeling as a form of the death penalty was widely used in France and Germany during the Middle Ages. In Russia, this type of execution is also known at a later time - from the 17th to the 19th centuries. The essence of the punishment was that at first the guilty person was tied to the wheel, facing the sky, fixing his arms and legs on the knitting needles. After that, his limbs were broken and in this form they were left to die in the sun.

Flaying

Flaying, or skinning, was invented in Assyria, then passed to Persia and spread throughout the ancient world. In the Middle Ages, the Inquisition improved this type of execution - with the help of a device called the "Spanish tickler", a person's skin was torn into small pieces, which were not difficult to tear off.

Welded alive

This execution was also invented in antiquity and received a second wind in the Middle Ages. So they executed mostly counterfeiters. A person convicted of counterfeiting money was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, tar or oil. This variety was quite humane - the offender quickly died from pain shock. More sophisticated executioners put the condemned man in a cauldron of cold water, which was heated gradually, or slowly lowered him into boiling water, starting with his feet. The welded muscles of the legs were moving away from the bones, and the man was still alive.
This execution is also practiced by the extremists of the East. According to Saddam Hussein's former bodyguard, he witnessed an acid execution: first, the victim's legs were lowered into a pool filled with caustic substance, and then they were thrown entirely. And in 2016, ISIS militants dissolved 25 people in a cauldron of acid.

cement boots

This method is well known to many of our gangster movie readers. Indeed, they killed their enemies and traitors with such a cruel method during the mafia wars in Chicago. The victim was tied to a chair, then a basin filled with liquid cement was placed under his feet. And when it froze, the person was taken to the nearest reservoir and thrown off the boat. Cement boots instantly dragged him to the bottom to feed the fish.

Flights of death

In 1976, General Jorge Videla came to power in Argentina. He led the country for only 5 years, but remained in history as one of the most terrible dictators of our time. Among other atrocities of Videla are the so-called "death flights".

A person who opposed the tyrant's regime was drugged with barbiturates and carried unconscious on board the plane, then thrown down - certainly into the water.

We also invite you to read about the most mysterious deaths in history.
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Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison, because being in prison turned out to be a slow death. Being in prison was paid by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the perpetrator be killed.
They didn’t keep convicts in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, then they could take their loved one for maintenance (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) were stocks. The most common type of block is "kanga" (or "jia"). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented the escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were chained 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 the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment heavier, the judges invented the execution, which was called "carry out five types of punishments." The offender should have been branded, cut off his arms or legs, beaten to death with sticks, and put his head on the market for all to see.

In the Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the fact that strangulation is characterized by prolonged torment.
The Chinese believed that the body of a person is a gift from his parents, and therefore it is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors 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 offender 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 strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last for a very long time, as the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take a few convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

"Cage", or "standing blocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles woven 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, then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck clamped in a block, which began to choke him, this could go on for months until all the supports were removed.

Ling-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "stings of a sea pike" - 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. Ling-chi, in order to intimidate, was performed in public places with a large gathering of onlookers.

For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-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 parts. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body, as a sign of imperial favor, was cut into only 8 pieces.
The offender 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 - muscles of the hands between the hand and the elbow; 9 and 10 - muscles of the arms between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves; 15 - they pierced the heart with a blow; 16 - cut off the head; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: 1 and 2 cut off the eyebrows with blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - they 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 pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.

In the modern world, there is no place for torture, they are no longer resorted to in the justice system in order to punish someone or get a confession to their deed. Now only the Museum of Torture can illustrate how the torture of the Inquisition took place.

Today, the most terrible torture is the electric chair, and what happened before ... it’s scary to imagine

The tortures were so cruel that not everyone has the willpower to look at their dummies, which the Museum of Torture provides so that everyone can see the face of justice in the Middle Ages.

It is difficult to determine the most terrible torture, since each of them was quite painful and cruel, but you can still single out the 20 most horrific.

Video about the most terrible torture

"Sharp Pear"

Let's start with torture, which can rightfully be included in the top twenty of the most inhuman abuse of people. The torture of the Inquisition included this method of punishing sinful people. In the Middle Ages, resorting to this cruel form of torture, the church punished sinners who were revealed to be in love with their own sex, for example, a woman with a woman or a man with a man. Such a relationship was considered blasphemy and a desecration of the church of God, so these people were in for a terrible punishment.

A tool for terrible torture - "Sharp Pear"

Instruments of torture of this type had a pear-like appearance. Accused female blasphemers were placed in the vagina, and male sinners in the anus or mouth. After the instrument was introduced into the body of the victim, the executioner began the second stage of torture, which consisted in making the person suffer terribly after gradually, when the screw was unscrewed, the sharp leaves of the pear opened inside the flesh. Opening, the pear tore the internal organs of a woman or a man to pieces. The lethal outcome came from the fact that the victim lost a large amount of blood, or from the deformation of the internal organs formed during the opening of the deadly killer pear.

The ancient torture of the world includes the punishment of the guilty with the help of rats

This is one of the most cruel tortures, which was invented in China, and was especially popular among the Inquisition in the 16th century. The victim suffered terrible pain. Rats were the main instrument of torture. A person was placed on a large table, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe womb a rather heavy cage was placed, stuffed with rats, which must have been hungry. Of course, this is far from the end: then the bottom of the cage was removed, after which the rats ended up on the victim’s stomach, at the same time hot coals were laid out on top of the cage, the rats got scared from the heat and, trying to escape from the cage, gnawed the belly of a person, so escaping way. in terrible agony.

metal torture

cat claw

The sinner was gradually and slowly torn out in pieces of skin, flesh and ribs with an iron hook, passing along the back.

Grim Rack

This instrument of torture is known in several forms: horizontal and vertical. If a vertical version was used on the victim, then the sinner was hooked under the ceiling, while twisting the joints, and weight was constantly added to the legs, stretching the body as much as possible. The use of the horizontal version of the rack ensured the rupture of the muscles and joints of the convict.

This is a kind of crushing machine for killing the convict. The principle of operation of the cranial press was to gradually compress the skull of the victim, this press crumbled the teeth, jaw, cranial bones of a person until the brain fell out of the sinner's ears.

The very name of the weapon is quite insidious, but not only the name excites. This inquisitorial tool did not break or tear anything on the body of the victim. With the help of a rope, the sinner was lifted up and seated on a “cradle”, the top of which was in the shape of a triangle and quite sharp. This top was seated in such a way that the sharp edge went well into the anus or vagina of the victim. Sinners fainted from pain, they were brought back to consciousness and continued to be tortured.

The shape of this tool resembles a female figure - it is a sarcophagus, inside of which is empty, but not without spikes and many blades, the location of which is provided in such a way that they do not touch the vital parts of the body of the accused, while cutting other parts. The sinner died in agony for several days.

Thus, sinners, thieves and other people who were accused of this or that evil deed against the church, the king, and so on, suffered their fate. The condemned experienced the most terrible torments, being in the hands of a cruel executioner.

It is good that today it is only history and instruments for torture are not used.