Historical Methods Of Execution

With already so many ways to die, ancient executors would often get more creative than, say, a quick beheading that is comparatively humane due to the immediate disconnection of the brain that registers the pain to the rest of the body. Nevertheless, some of the most widespread ways of historical methods of execution have been discussed below. 

This slow and agonizing method of execution involved the torturously dragged-out lowering of the victim into boiling oil, water, wax, or even wine or lead. Some would remain conscious through the initial stages of the excruciating sensations of their outer skin layer getting dissolved. Then, the complete destruction of the fatty tissue underneath would come into effect, followed by a continuous boiling everything underneath. Although it is often considered that the most torturous executions where victims can feel every step and stay conscious were reserved for those who committed the most gruesome crimes and horrendous murders, historical records state that this method was used on thousands of Christians by Emperor Nero. Similarly, in the Middle Ages, mere coin forgers would receive the fate to die by this death, which was mainly practiced in France, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire between the 13th and 16th centuries. King Henry VIII of England also used this method on those who would fatally poison someone

The convicted person would be placed into an enclosed space with no way to escape, with the message to the victim being imprisoned for life, which shall no longer be extended, upon dying from dehydration or starvation. A notable moment in history, published in the 1922 issue of the National Geographic journal, involves the inability of a travel photographer, Albert Kahn, upon witnessing a Mongolian woman committed into a small box for adultery. She would beg for food, and he could do nothing about it, as that would go against another culture’s criminal justice system. A report from a Chinese newspaper in 1914 fixated an instance when immurement involved entombing one in a heavy iron-bound coffin, where sitting upright or lying down was impossible. With another method involving confining a person alive behind a wall, immurement was essentially a mentally torturous slow-burn way of killing someone.

In Ancient Rome, justice was class-based, with slaves having to display evidence in court under torture. It was also for them and the second-class Romans, known as humiliores, that the method of execution through crucifixion was reserved, with only some upper-class citizens getting subject to this death penalty. The convicted people to be crucified would be stripped naked and beaten with ropes or whips, upon which they would be forced to carry a huge wooden cross to their ultimate death spot. There, once nailed to the cross by hands and feet, they would accept stabbing, beating, and humiliating by soldiers and mere bystanders, who would want to have their way with the victim. Interestingly, it was considered merciful to be crucified head-down, making death arrive sooner, while the actual cause of death could be different every time. It would range from septic shock due to the open wounds or asphyxiation when the victim would get so exhausted from supporting their own body that they would stop breathing. Done in public as much as possible, the procedure was abolished throughout the Roman Empire in 337

Some say that this death by execution takes the top as being most torturous. It is most painful due to its slow process, with the victim, first, being stripped and bound by hands and feet. A sharp blade was then used to peel away their skin from the head area down, which would inflict the most pain since there are so many nerve endings and the victim is still conscious. At times, pre-boiling particular body parts made the skin softer to peel. Dying from this method was often due to shock, blood or fluid loss, hypothermia, or infection, but the dying time could last from a few hours to a few days. Not a very common method of capital punishment, it meant to send a message that the body, an eloquent of the punitive, could be marked any way that the secular authority would please. Flaying was practiced by a few nations, including the Assyrians, Aztecs, Chinese, and some Medieval European groups. The most notable case of flaying involved a female philosopher, Hypatia of Alexandria, getting flayed by a Christian mob.