Rating of terrible tortures of the Middle Ages. The most terrible torture in the history of mankind (21 photos) 10 of the most terrible torture in the history of mankind

We all know that at different times different people very cruel tortures and punishments were used. They were carried out for various purposes, mostly it was just a painful execution. In any case, those who were tortured, as a rule, wanted to die faster than suffer like that. For many of us, the worst torture in the world is to serve a full-time job, for someone to listen to a boring lecture. But let's see what were the most terrible and cruel tortures in the world.

1. Pear. Not the most pleasant tool. It was inserted into the anus of a person and gradually unclenched, tearing this passage, thereby delivering unbearable pain.

2. Copper bull. This Greek device was made of metal. A victim was placed inside and a fire was lit from below under the bull. The metal was heated and the man was roasted inside, uttering terrible screams and screams.

3. Rats. The victim was stripped naked and laid in a horizontal position. A cage without a bottom with rats inside was placed on the victim. After that, hot coals were placed on top of the cage, which caused the rats to panic and, wanting to break free, began to gnaw their way to freedom through human flesh. This brutal torture It was very popular in ancient China.

4. Impaling First, this stake is driven into the anus of a person, after which this stake is dug into the ground. As a result, under the weight of the body, the person begins to slide, thereby forcing the stake to dig even deeper. As a result, the stake came out somewhere in the armpits.

5. Spanish chair. The victim was seated in a metal chair, and the legs were shackled in stocks. A fire was kindled under their feet, periodically adding fuel to the fire. Here are your fried legs.

6. Metal crocodile. This tool was heated to red, after which the victim was brought to an erection state so that the penis was hard and elastic. And then they grabbed a member with this crocodile, after which they pulled it out.

7. Notched crusher. Here, I think it is clear what it was used for. But who did not understand. They crushed the eggs of the victim.

8. Water torture. The victim was laid on a table, tied, and water was poured through a funnel. After the victim's belly swelled up, he was bludgeoned with sticks. Sometimes they did without sticks. Simply, water was slowly poured into the patient's throat through a tube, i.e. victim, causing the person to suffocate the intestines.

9. Iron Maiden. This is a wooden box made to look like a female figure, inside of which a bunch of blades and sharp spikes were stuffed. The victim was placed there and the sarcophagus was closed. Sharp spikes pierced the body, but it was planned that they did not touch the vital organs. As a result, the victims died from a painful death, sometimes even for several days.

Since ancient times, the sophisticated mind of man has tried to come up with such a terrible punishment for a criminal, carried out necessarily publicly, in order to frighten the assembled crowd with this spectacle and discourage it from committing criminal acts. This is how the most terrible executions in the world appeared, but most of them, fortunately, became the property of history.

1. Bull Falarida


The ancient instrument of execution - the "copper bull" or "bull Falaris" was invented by the Athenian Peripius in the VI century BC. e. From copper sheets they made a huge bull, hollow inside and having a door on the side or on the back. A man could fit inside the bull. The one sentenced to death was put inside the bull, the door was closed and a fire was kindled under the belly of the bull. The nostrils and eyes of the bull had holes through which the cries of the roasting victim were heard - it seemed that the bull himself was roaring. The inventor of this instrument of execution himself became his first victim - so the tyrant Falarid decided to test the device's performance. But Peripius was not fried to death, but was taken out in time, in order to then “mercifully” be thrown into the abyss. However, Falarid himself later came to know the belly of a copper bull.

2. Hanging, gutting and quartering


This multi-stage execution was practiced in England and applied to traitors to the crown, since it was the most serious crime at that time. It was applied only to men, and women were lucky - their body was considered unsuitable for such an execution, so they were tritely burned alive. This bloody and brutal execution was legal in "civilized" Britain until 1814.
At first, the convicts were dragged to the place of execution, tied to a horse, and then, in order not to kill the victim during transportation, they began to be laid in front of the drag on a kind of sleigh. After this, the condemned was hanged, but not to death, but was taken out of the noose in time and laid on the scaffold. Then the executioner cut off the victim's genitals, opened the stomach and took out the insides, which were burned right there so that the executed person could see it. Then the offender was beheaded, and the body was cut into 4 parts. After that, usually the head of the executed was put on a pike, which was fixed on the bridge in the Tower, and the rest of the body was taken to the largest English cities, where they were also put on display - this was the usual wish of the king.

3. Burning


People have adapted to burn the condemned alive in two ways. In the first case, a person was tied to a vertical pole and surrounded on all sides with brushwood and firewood - in this case, he burned in a ring of fire. It is believed that this is how Joan of Arc was executed. In another method, the condemned was placed on top of a stack of firewood and also chained to a pole, and the firewood was set on fire from below, so in this case the flame slowly rose along the stack and climbed to the legs and then to the rest of the body of the unfortunate.
If the executioner was skilled in his work, then burning was carried out in a certain sequence: first the ankles, then the hips, then the arms, then the torso with forearms, the chest, and finally the face. It was the most painful kind of burning. Sometimes the executions were massive, then part of the condemned did not die from burns, but simply suffocated from carbon monoxide released during combustion. If the firewood was damp, and the fire was too weak, then the victim was more likely to die from heatstroke, blood loss, or pain shock. Later, people became more “humane” - before burning, the victim was hung, and an already dead body fell on the fire. In this way, witches were most often burned throughout Europe, with the exception of the British Isles.

4. Lynchy


Eastern people were especially sophisticated in torture and execution. So, the Chinese came up with a very cruel execution of linchi, which consisted in the fact that small pieces of flesh were slowly cut off from the victim. This type of execution was used in China until 1905. The sentenced was gradually cut off pieces of meat from the arms and legs, stomach and chest, and only at the very end they plunged a knife into the heart and cut off the head. There are sources claiming that such an execution could stretch for several days, but this still seems to be an exaggeration.
Here is how an eyewitness, one of the journalists, described such an execution: “The condemned was tied to a cross, after which the executioner armed with a sharp knife grabbed handfuls of fleshy parts of the body on the hips with his fingers and carefully cut off his chest. He then trimmed the tendons of the joints and protruding parts of the body, including the fingers, ears, and nose. Then came the turn of the limbs, starting with the ankles and wrists, then higher at the knees and elbows, after which the remains were cut off at the exit from the torso. Only after that followed a direct stab in the heart and cutting off the head.


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5. Wheeling


Wheeling, or as they said in some countries, "Catherine's wheel" was widely used for executions in the Middle Ages. The offender was tied to a wheel and all his large bones and spine were broken with an iron crowbar. After that, the wheel was horizontally fixed on a pillar with a pile of meat and bones of the ground victim lying on top. Birds often came to feast on the meat of a still living person. At the same time, the victim could live for several more days until he died from dehydration and pain shock. The French made this execution more humane - before the execution, they strangled the convict.

6. Welding in boiling water


The offender was stripped naked and put into a vat of boiling liquid, which could be not only water, but also tar, acid, oil or lead. Sometimes it was placed in a cold liquid, which was heated from below by a fire. Sometimes criminals were hung on a chain, on which they were lowered into boiling water, where they were boiled. This type of execution was widely used for counterfeiters and poisoners in England during the reign of Henry VIII.

7. Skinning


In this variant of slow killing, either all the skin or some parts of it were removed from the body of the convict. The skin was removed with a sharp knife, trying to keep it intact - after all, it was then supposed to serve to intimidate the people. This type of execution has ancient history. According to legend, the Apostle Bartholomew was crucified upside down on the St. Andrew's Cross and skinned from him. The Assyrians skinned their enemies to intimidate the population of captured cities. Among the Mexican Aztecs, skinning was of a ritual nature, it often touched the head (scalping), but even the bloodthirsty Indians usually scalped corpses. This by no means humane form of execution is already banned everywhere, but in one village in Myanmar, all men were recently skinned.


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8. Impaling


A well-known type of execution, where the offender was hoisted onto a vertical pointed stake. Until the 18th century, this method of execution was used by the Commonwealth, which executed so many Zaporozhye Cossacks. But they also knew it in Sweden of the 17th century. Here, peritonitis or blood loss leads to death, and death occurs very slowly, after a few days.
In Romania, when impaling women, the instrument of execution was inserted into the vagina, then they died faster from heavy bleeding. A man planted on a sharp stake, under the influence of his own weight, descended lower and lower along it, and the stake gradually tore apart his insides. So that the victim would not get rid of the torment too quickly, the stake was sometimes made not sharp, but rounded and lubricated with fat - then it penetrated more slowly and did not tear the organs. Another innovation was the transverse bars nailed slightly below the end of the stake, dropping to which the victim did not have time to damage vital organs and, again, suffered even longer.

9. Skafism


This ancient oriental method of execution is unhygienic, but causes an agonizing long death. The sentenced was completely undressed, smeared with honey and placed in a narrow boat or a hollowed out tree trunk, and covered with the same object from above. It turned out something like a turtle: only the limbs and the head of the victim stuck out, which they heavily fed with honey and milk to cause uncontrollable diarrhea. A similar design was either placed in the sun, or allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water. The object quickly attracted the attention of insects, which penetrated the inside of the boat, where they slowly gnawed on the body of the victim, laying larvae there until sepsis began.
"Compassionate" executioners continued to feed the poor fellow every day in order to prolong his suffering. Finally, he usually died from a combination of septic shock and dehydration. Plutarch reported that this is how they executed the king Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, who suffered for 17 days. The American Indians used a similar method of execution - they tied a victim to a tree, smeared with mud and oil, leaving it to be eaten by ants.


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10. Sawing


The condemned to death was hung upside down with legs apart and started sawing in the groin area. The victim's head was at a low point, so the brain was better supplied with blood and, despite the huge loss of blood, was conscious longer. Sometimes the victim survived, being sawn already to the diaphragm. This execution was known both in Europe and somewhere in Asia. They say that the emperor Caligula loved to have fun so much. But in the Asian version, sawing was carried out from the head.

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By modern standards, the Middle Ages is not the best period to live. Most of the people were poor, suffering from disease, their freedom dependent on wealthy landowners. And if you committed a crime and were not able to pay a fine, then you could cut off your hand, tongue, or cut out your lips ...
The Middle Ages is the heyday of sophisticated torture and devices for causing terrible pain. Modern "legalized" torture is designed to inflict psychological or emotional suffering and has limited physical impact. But the devices used in the Middle Ages were really creepy. And in those days there were quite a few people who took pleasure in inventing the most terrifying contraptions.

Warning: The descriptions below are not intended for the faint of heart!

1. Impaling: a pointed stick is driven end up into the body of the victim

If you were Vlad the Impaler (better known as Dracula) in 15th century Romania, you would simply force your victims to sit on a thick, pointed stick. Then the stick was raised high, and under the influence of its own weight, the victim fell lower and lower onto the stake.

Also, the stake was stuck into the chest so that its tip was located under the chin to prevent further slipping. The victim died about three days later. Thus, Vlad executed from 20,000 to 30,000 people. According to eyewitnesses, Vlad liked to watch the impalement while eating.


2. Cradle of Judas: the anus of the victim is painfully stretched, the flesh is torn off

It's entirely possible that Judas' Cradle was less sadistic than impalement, but no less creepy. The anus or vagina of the victim was placed on the end of the cradle, then with the help of ropes the person was lifted above it. The device was intended for long-term stretching of the hole or for slow fitting.

Usually the victim was completely naked, thus, humiliation was added to the torture itself, and sometimes extra weight was tied to her legs, which increased pain and hastened death. Such torture could last from several hours to several days. The device was rarely washed, so often the victim also became infected with some kind of infection.


Source 3Coffin of Torture: Birds of Prey Pecked at the Victim in a Metal Cage

The coffin of torture was used in the Middle Ages, and is often seen in films from that time (for example, in the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"). The victim was placed in a metal cage made like human body. The executioners closed overweight people in a smaller device, or made the "coffin" a little larger than the victim's body to make her feel uncomfortable. Often the cage was hung on a tree or gallows.

Violent crimes such as heresy or blasphemy were punishable by death in such a coffin, by placing the victim in the sun and allowing birds or animals to eat their flesh. Sometimes onlookers threw stones or other objects at the victim to further increase her suffering.


4. Rack: designed to dislocate all the joints in the body of the victim

Who can fail to remember the terrifying rack, which is considered the most terrible device for medieval torture? It consists of a wooden frame with four ropes: two attached to the bottom and two tied to a handle at the top. When the executioner turned the handle, the ropes would taut, dragging the victim's arms with them, causing their bones to dislocate with a loud crunch. If the executioner continued to turn the handle (sometimes he skidded), then the limbs simply came off the body.

In the Late Middle Ages, a new version of the rack appeared. Spikes were added that dug into the back of the victim as soon as she lay down on the table. When the limbs were torn off, the same thing happened with the spinal cord, thus increasing not only the physical, but also the psychological pain that came from the victim's realization that even if she managed to survive, he or she would forever lose the ability to move.


5. Breast Cutter: Painfully tears or mutilates a woman's breasts

Used as a terrible punishment for women. The chest cutter was used to inflict pain and mutilation of the chest. Commonly applied to women accused of performing abortions or violating marital fidelity.

Red-hot tongs were placed over the bare chest of the victim, the spikes dug into the skin for a better grip. Then the executioner pulled them towards himself in order to tear off or mutilate the chest. If the victim was not killed, she was permanently mutilated, as her chest was completely torn off.

The most common version of this device was called "Spider", it was soldered to the wall. The woman's chest was attached to the tongs, the executioner pulled the victim away from the wall, while her chest was either torn off or severely mutilated. It was a very cruel punishment that often resulted in the death of the victim.


6. Pear: rips holes, displaces jawbones

This horrific device has been used to torture women who have had abortions, liars, blasphemers, and gay people. A pear-shaped instrument was thrust into one of the victim's orifices: a woman's vagina, a homosexual's anus, a liar's or blasphemer's mouth.

The device consists of four petals, which are slowly separated from each other while the executioner turned the screw at its base. At a minimum, the device tore the skin, but at maximum expansion it mutilated the opening of the victim, could displace or break the jaw bones.

Pears that have come down to us are distinguished by engraving or decorations. According to them, the executioners distinguished between anal, vaginal or oral pears. This torture rarely led to death, more often other methods of torture were used along with it.



7 Crushing Wheel: Used To Mutilate The Victim's Limbs

Also called Catherine's wheel. This device always killed the victim, but did it very slowly. The human limbs were tied to the spokes of a large wooden wheel. Then the wheel began to spin slowly, while the executioner beat the limbs with an iron hammer, crushing the bones in several places.

Once all of the victim's bones were broken, they were left to die on the wheel. Sometimes the wheel was placed on a long stick so that the birds could peck at the flesh of the still-living person. It could take two or three days before the victim died of dehydration.

Sometimes, out of pity, the executioner was ordered to deliver a blow to the victim's chest or stomach, known as coups de grâce (French for "blow of mercy"). These blows inflicted mortal wounds and led to the death of the victim.


8 Saw: saws the victim in half

The saw was the most common instrument of torture, since it could be found in almost every home, and for its use there was no need to invent complex devices. This is a fairly simple way to torture and kill a victim accused of witchcraft, adultery, murder, blasphemy, and even theft.

The victim was tied upside down in order to increase blood flow to the brain. This allowed the victim to remain conscious for as long as possible, reduced blood loss, and contributed to maximum humiliation. The torture could last for hours.

Some victims were cut in half, but most were cut only to the abdomen in order to delay the moment of death.


9. Head press: compresses the skull, crushes the teeth, gouges out the eyes

The head press was a popular instrument of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition, among others. The chin was placed on the lower crossbar, and the head was placed under the cap located at the top. The executioner slowly turned the bolt, while the beam began to put pressure on the cap. The head was slowly compressed, at first the teeth were crushed, and only after some time the victim died from excruciating pain. Some models of this device had special eye containers that were squeezed out of the victim's eye sockets.

This device was effective for knocking out confessions, since torture, at the request of the executioner, could be stretched out for an indefinite time. If the torture was stopped halfway, then irreparable damage was done to the brain, jaw or eyes.


10. Knee crusher: separated knees and other limbs

Another tool favored by the Spanish Inquisition due to its versatility is the knee crusher. This is a strong fixture made of two planks with sharp spikes. The executioner turned the handle - and the planks began to slowly shrink, penetrating the skin and crippling the bones of the knee. It rarely resulted in death, but its use left the knee completely inoperative. It has also been used for other parts of the body such as elbows, arms and even legs.

The number of spikes varied from three to twenty. Sometimes the spiked planks were pre-heated to increase the pain, or they were used with hundreds of thin needles, which penetrated the skin more slowly and were more painful.

From the Heretic's Fork to being eaten alive by insects, these gruesome old torture methods prove that humans have always been cruel.

It's not always easy to get a confession, and it always takes a lot of so-called creative ideas to sentence someone to death. The following horrific methods of torture and execution ancient world were intended to humiliate and dehumanize the victims in their last moments of life. Which of these methods do you think is the most brutal?

"Rack" (began to be used in ancient times)

The victim's ankles were tied to one end of this device and his wrists to the other. The mechanism of this device is as follows: during the interrogation process, the limbs of the victim are stretched in different directions. During this process, bones and ligaments make amazing sounds, and until the victim confesses, his joints are twisted or, worse, the victim is simply torn apart.

"Cradle of Judas" (origin: Ancient Rome)

This method was widely used in the Middle Ages to gain recognition. This "cradle of Judas" was feared throughout Europe. The victim was tied with straps to limit freedom of action, and lowered into a chair with a pyramid-shaped seat. With each rise and fall of the victim, the top of the pyramid ruptured the anus or vagina more and more, often causing septic shock or death.

"Copper bull" (origin: Ancient Greece)

This is what can be called hell on earth, this is the worst thing that can be. The "Copper Bull" is a torture device, it is not the most complex design, it looked exactly like a bull. The entrance to this construction was on the belly of the so-called animal, this is a kind of chamber. The victim was shoved inside, the door was closed, the statue was heated, and this all continued until the victim was roasted to death inside.

"Heretic's fork" (began to be used in medieval Spain)

Used to extract confessions during the Spanish Inquisition. The heretic's fork was even engraved with the inscription in Latin "I renounce." This is a reversible fork, a simple device that is fixed around the neck. 2 spikes were clamped to the chest, and the other 2 - to the throat. The victim was unable to speak or sleep, the frenzy usually leading to confession.

"Choke pear" (origin unknown, first mentioned in France)

This device was intended for women, homosexuals and liars. Formed in the shape of a ripe fruit, it had a rather intimate design, and in the literal sense of the word. After it was inserted into the vagina, anus or mouth, the device (which had four sharp metal sheets) was opened. The sheets expanded wider and wider, thereby tearing the victim apart.

Rat torture (origin unknown, possibly UK)

Although there are many variants of torture by rats, the most common was the one that consisted in fixing the victim so that she could not move. The rat was placed on the body of the victim and covered with a container. Then the container was heated, and the rat desperately began to look for a way out and tore the man apart. The rat dug and dug, slowly burrowed into the man until he died.

Crucifixion (origin unknown)

Although today it is a symbol of the greatest religion in the world (Christianity), crucifixion was once a brutal form of humiliating death. The condemned was nailed to the cross, often done in public, left hanging so that all the blood from his wounds would flow out and he would die. Death sometimes occurred only after a week. It is likely that the crucifix is ​​still used today (though rarely) in places like Burma and Saudi Arabia.

Skafism (most likely appeared in Ancient Persia)

Death came because the victim was eaten alive by insects. The sentenced was placed in a boat or simply tied with chains to a tree and force-fed with milk and honey. This went on until the victim had diarrhea. Then she was left to sit in her own excrement, and insects soon flocked to this stench. Death usually came from dehydration, septic shock, or gangrene.

Torture with a saw (began to be used in ancient times)

Everyone, from the Persians to the Chinese, practiced this form of death as sawing the victim. Often the victim was hung upside down (thereby increasing blood flow to the head), between which a large saw was placed. The executioners slowly sawed the human body in half, dragging out the process to make death as painful as possible.

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 bull of Falaris, 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 snarling 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. The offender was then hanged 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 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 heat stroke.

In 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 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.

P - to dream