How cruel is a person: types and methods of the death penalty of the past. Execution by hanging: why it was considered shameful

The most popular types of execution in the Middle Ages were beheading and hanging. Moreover, they were applied to people of different classes. Beheading was used as a punishment for noble people, and the gallows was the lot of the rootless poor. So why did the aristocracies cut off their heads, and the common people were hanged?

Decapitation is the lot of kings and nobles

This type of death penalty has been used everywhere for many millennia. In medieval Europe, such punishment was considered "noble" or "honorable". They cut off the head mainly of aristocrats. When a representative of a noble family laid his head on the chopping block, he showed humility.

Decapitation with a sword, ax or ax was considered the least painful death. A quick death made it possible to avoid public agony, which was important for representatives of noble families. The crowd, thirsty for spectacles, should not have seen low death manifestations.

It was also believed that the aristocrats, being brave and selfless warriors, were prepared specifically for death from edged weapons.

Much in this matter depended on the skills of the executioner. Therefore, often the convict himself or his relatives paid a lot of money so that he did his job with one blow.

Decapitation leads to instant death, which means it saves from violent torment. The sentence was carried out quickly. The condemned lay his head on a log, which was to be no more than six inches thick. This greatly simplified the execution.

The aristocratic connotation of this type of punishment was also reflected in books devoted to the Middle Ages, thus perpetuating its selectivity. In the book “History of the Master” (author Kirill Sinelnikov) there is a quote: “... a noble execution is cutting off the head. This is not hanging for you, the execution of the mob. Decapitation is the lot of kings and nobles."

Hanging

If noblemen were sentenced to beheading, then commoner criminals fell on the gallows.

Hanging is the most common execution in the world. This type of punishment has been considered shameful since ancient times. And there are several explanations for this. Firstly, it was believed that when hanging, the soul cannot leave the body, as if remaining hostage to it. Such dead people were called "mortgages".

Secondly, dying on the gallows was excruciating and painful. Death does not come instantly, a person experiences physical suffering and remains conscious for several seconds, perfectly aware of the approach of the end. All his torments and manifestations of agony are watched by hundreds of onlookers. In 90% of cases, at the moment of strangulation, all the muscles of the body relax, which leads to complete emptying of the intestines and bladder.

In many nations, hanging was considered an unclean death. No one wanted his body to hang out in front of everyone after the execution. Swearing by exposure is an obligatory part of this type of punishment. Many believed that such a death was the worst thing that could happen, and it was reserved only for traitors. People remembered Judas, who hanged himself on an aspen.

A person sentenced to the gallows had to have three ropes: the first two, the thickness of the little finger (tortuzas), were equipped with a loop and were intended for direct strangulation. The third was called a "token" or "throw" - it served to drop the condemned to the gallows. The execution was completed by the executioner, holding on to the crossbar of the gallows, he beat the sentenced man in the stomach with his knee.

Exceptions to the rules

Despite a clear distinction according to belonging to a particular class, there were exceptions to the established rules. For example, if a nobleman raped a girl who was entrusted to him for guardianship, then he was deprived of his nobility and all the privileges associated with the title. If during the detention he resisted, then the gallows awaited him.

Among the military, deserters and traitors were sentenced to hanging. For officers, such a death was so humiliating that they often committed suicide without waiting for the execution of the punishment imposed by the court.

The exception was cases of high treason, in which the nobleman was deprived of all privileges and could be executed as a commoner.

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 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 Rus' 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 Rus', they also practiced quartering, 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 unconsciously carried 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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May 20th, 2012

To date, the death penalty on our planet has been abolished in an area equal to South America ... So
that if you think that the electric chair is a relic of the past, you are deeply mistaken. Is it true,
the guillotine is no longer used - since 1939 ...

It's terrible, but everything you read about in the scariest books in democratic North America
still exists safely ... And this country still has something to brag about in terms of guns
executions, and in different states they have a variety of modifications! .. And it all started with the courts
Lynch - that is, mass hangings ...






Sometimes the perpetrators were also burned to be sure ...



Negroes were hanged, at least in the South, everywhere (Lynching has a huge number of victims in the 20th century, in 1901
130 people were lynched in a year)...



The Indians were often executed by punishers who avenged the massacre of the white population. In the Wild West at the same time
the sheriffs acted, executing at their own discretion (sometimes with their own hands). The death penalty was used in the USA
also for political reasons against socialists, communists, anarchists.



By the end of the 19th century, they were no longer hung up somehow, but professionally. A "professional" gallows was approved, so to speak,
on which it was possible to hang people of any height ... It is in front of you ...



The prisoner's hands were bound...



And a special bag was put on his head - so that those watching the execution would not be shocked by the expression on his face
gallows...



At the end of the 19th century, the electric chair was invented in the USA, first used in 1890 ... It was a breakthrough ...



It very soon came into general use, and in many states superseded the hanging. And with the advent of the chair
came up with the so-called "open executions", where the city administration was invited (in special cases
state) and relatives of the victim of the perpetrator ...



Gradually, the chair improved and improved ...



A special mask was put on the head of the condemned...



Attach separate contacts to hands...



But from these improvements, the suffering of the prisoner has changed little ...



Although death for the average person comes quickly, there are cases in the history of executions when the condemned
I had to "kill" 20-30 minutes ...



The Americans introduced the gas chamber even earlier than in Germany, namely in 1924 ...



For execution, potassium cyanide vapors are used, and if the convict breathes deeply, death occurs almost
immediately...



Then came a truly infernal invention - the Armchair of Death. The method is still performed in Utah and Idaho,
as an alternative to lethal injection. To carry out the execution, the prisoner is tied to a chair with leather straps.
across the waist and head. The stool is surrounded by sandbags that absorb blood. A black hood is worn
head of the condemned. The doctor locates the heart and attaches a round target. At a distance of 20
feet are five shooters. Each of them aims a rifle through a gap in the canvas and fires. A prisoner
dies as a result of blood loss caused by rupture of the heart or a large blood vessel, or rupture
lungs. If the arrows miss the heart, either by accident or on purpose, the condemned man dies a slow death...



Soon the last type of American execution appeared, now the most common, and in many states the only one:
lethal injection ... Before you is a special couch (gurney) for the condemned ...



The composition of the lethal injection was developed by physician Stanley Deutsch. It consists of three chemical components. First
substance - sodium pentothal - plunges the condemned into a deep sleep. Pavulon - paralyzes the muscles. Finally,
potassium chloride stops the work of the heart muscle. After an examination at the University of Texas, this
method has been approved. It soon became widespread. Opponents of the death penalty gave him
the name of the "Texas cocktail". Today, of the 38 states that, after 1976, re-introduced on their territory
the death penalty, only Nebraska does not resort to injections, preferring the electric chair to them.



Poisons are stored like this...



The killing of the prisoner takes place with poison injected into a vein on his right leg ...



But the most terrible state of affairs with executions is still in Asia and the Middle East ... There are still means
executions used since ancient times: stoning, beheading with a sword and hanging. Frame in front of you
city ​​execution - a man is simply lynched by a crowd ...



But these quite decent people throw these stones at him ...



And they are simply trying to dismantle the guilty ...



The corpse, which is being dragged to demonstrate to the "boss" ...



Hanging...



And just suicide...



And in China, execution is still widely used. They shoot in this country the keepers of brothels,
dishonest officials, dissidents, and so on and so forth...



Moreover, especially mass executions happen before the New Year ...



Among other things, such sentences are pronounced publicly, in front of a large gathering of people ...



The execution is carried out by conscripts...



And the bodies are buried in specially designated places - they are not given to relatives ...



Russia ... On May 16, 1996, Russian President Boris Yeltsin issued a decree "On the phased reduction
application of the death penalty in connection with Russia's entry into the Council of Europe. Since August 1996, in accordance with this
by decree, death sentences are not carried out. Suicide bombers are serving life sentences...
Before you is a very rare picture of the prisoners of the Orenburg prison "Black Dolphin" ...



There are three more such prisons in Russia. They don't come out. Nobody ever. So human rights activists bitterly joke "If they
residents were able to vote on the use of the death penalty, most of them would vote yes.



Look how discreet it looks, this most famous prison in Russia ... Those who are inside this
red-brick building dating back to Catherine's time, when there was already lifelong penal servitude, never
did not see the sculptures of those same dolphins from the fountains, which gave this terrible institution such
poetic name...



Today in Russia there are more than three and a half thousand people sentenced to life
conclusion. And "Black Dolphin" today is the largest specialized prison for death row...

Since ancient times, people brutally dealt with their enemies, some even ate them, but mostly they were executed, deprived of their lives in terrible and sophisticated ways. The same was done with criminals who violated the laws of God and man. Over a thousand-year history, a lot of experience has been accumulated in the execution of the condemned.

Decapitation
The physical separation of the head from the body with the help of an ax or any military weapon (knife, sword) later, a machine invented in France, the Guillotine, was used for these purposes. It is believed that during such an execution, the head, separated from the body, retains sight and hearing for another 10 seconds. Decapitation was considered a "noble execution" and was applied to aristocrats. In Germany, beheading was abolished in 1949 due to the failure of the last guillotine.

Hanging
Strangulation of a person on a rope loop, the end of which is fixed motionless. Death occurs in a few minutes, but not at all from suffocation, but from squeezing the carotid arteries. In this case, the person first loses consciousness, and later dies.
The medieval gallows consisted of a special pedestal, a vertical column (pillars) and a horizontal beam, on which the condemned were hung, placed above the likeness of a well. The well was intended for falling off parts of the body - the hanged remained hanging on the gallows until complete decomposition.
In England, a type of hanging was used, when a person was thrown from a height with a noose around his neck, while death occurs instantly from a rupture of the cervical vertebrae. There was an “official table of falls”, with the help of which the required length of the rope was calculated depending on the weight of the convict (if the rope is too long, the head separates from the body).
A variation of hanging is garrote. A garrote (an iron collar with a screw, often equipped with a vertical spike on the back) is generally not strangled. She breaks her neck. In this case, the executed person dies not from asphyxiation, as happens if he is strangled with a rope, but from crushing of the spine (sometimes, according to medieval evidence, from a fracture of the base of the skull, depending on where to put it on) and a fracture of the cervical cartilage.
The last high-profile hanging - Saddam Hussein.

Quartering
It is considered one of the most cruel executions, and was applied to the most dangerous criminals. When quartered, the victim was strangled (not to death), then the stomach was cut open, the genitals were cut off, and only then the body was cut into four or more parts and the head was cut off. Body parts were put on public display "where the king deems it convenient."
Thomas More, the author of Utopia, sentenced to quartering with burning of the inside, on the morning before the execution was pardoned, and the quartering was replaced by decapitation, to which More replied: "God spare my friends from such mercy."
In England, quartering was used until 1820, formally abolished only in 1867. In France, quartering was carried out with the help of horses. The convict was tied by the arms and legs to four strong horses, which, whipped by the executioners, moved in different directions and tore off the limbs. In fact, the convict had to cut the tendons.
Another execution by tearing the body in half, noted in pagan Rus', was that the victim was tied by the legs to two bent young trees, and then released. According to Byzantine sources, Prince Igor was killed by the Drevlyans in 945 because he wanted to collect tribute from them twice.

wheeling
A common type of death penalty in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In the Middle Ages, it was common in Europe, especially in Germany and France. In Russia, this type of execution has been known since the 17th century, but wheeling began to be regularly used only under Peter I, having received legislative approval in the Military Charter. Wheeling ceased to be used only in the 19th century.
Professor A.F. Kistyakovsky in the 19th century described the wheeling process used in Russia as follows: St. Andrew's cross, made of two logs, was tied to the scaffold in a horizontal position. On each of the branches of this cross two notches were made, one foot apart from the other. On this cross, the criminal was stretched so that his face was turned to the sky; each end of it lay on one of the branches of the cross, and in every place of each joint it was tied to the cross.
Then the executioner, armed with an iron quadrangular crowbar, struck at the part of the penis between the joint, which just lay above the notch. In this way, the bones of each member were broken in two places. The operation ended with two or three blows to the stomach and a breaking of the backbone. The criminal, broken in this way, was placed on a horizontally placed wheel so that the heels converged with the back of the head, and they left him in this position to die.

Burning at the stake
The death penalty, in which the victim is burned at the stake in public. Along with immuring and imprisoning, burning was widely used in the Middle Ages, since, according to the church, on the one hand, it took place without “shedding blood”, and on the other hand, the flame was considered a means of “purification” and could save the soul. Heretics, "witches" and those guilty of sodomy were especially often subject to burning.
The execution became widespread during the period of the Holy Inquisition, and only in Spain about 32 thousand people were burned (excluding the Spanish colonies).
The most famous people burned at the stake: Giorgano Bruno - as a heretic (engaged in scientific activities) and Joan of Arc, who commanded the French troops in the Hundred Years' War.

Impalement
Impaling was widely used in ancient Egypt and the Middle East, its first mention dates back to the beginning of the second millennium BC. e. Execution was especially widespread in Assyria, where impalement was a common punishment for residents of rebellious cities, therefore, for instructive purposes, scenes of this execution were often depicted on bas-reliefs. This execution was used according to Assyrian law and as a punishment for women for abortion (considered as a variant of infanticide), as well as for a number of especially serious crimes. On the Assyrian reliefs, there are two options: with one of them, the condemned person was pierced with a stake in the chest, with the other, the tip of the stake entered the body from below, through the anus. Execution was widely used in the Mediterranean and the Middle East at least from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. e. It was also known to the Romans, although it did not receive much distribution in Ancient Rome.
For a large part of medieval history, the execution by impalement was very common in the Middle East, where it was one of the main methods of painful death penalty. It became widespread in France during the time of Fredegonda, who was the first to introduce this type of execution, conferring on her a young girl of a noble family. The unfortunate was laid on his stomach, and the executioner drove a wooden stake into his anus with a hammer, after which the stake was driven vertically into the ground. Under the weight of the body, the person gradually slid down until, after a few hours, the stake came out through the chest or neck.
The ruler of Wallachia, Vlad III Tepes (“the impaler”) Dracula, distinguished himself with particular cruelty. According to his instructions, the victims were impaled on a thick stake, in which the top was rounded and oiled. The stake was inserted into the anus to a depth of several tens of centimeters, then the stake was placed vertically. The victim, under the influence of the gravity of his body, slowly slid down the stake, and sometimes death occurred only after a few days, since the rounded stake did not pierce the vital organs, but only went deeper into the body. In some cases, a horizontal bar was installed on the stake, which prevented the body from sliding too low, and ensured that the stake did not reach the heart and other critical organs. In this case, the death of rupture of internal organs and great blood loss did not come very soon.
King Edward of England was executed by impalement. The nobles rebelled and killed the monarch by driving a red-hot iron rod into his anus. Impaling was used in the Commonwealth until the 18th century, and many Zaporizhian Cossacks were executed in this way. With the help of smaller stakes, rapists were also executed (they drove a stake into the heart) and mothers who killed their children (they were pierced with a stake after being buried alive in the ground).

Hanging by the rib
A type of death penalty in which an iron hook was thrust into the side of the victim and hung up. Death came from thirst and blood loss after a few days. The hands of the victim were tied so that he could not free himself. Execution was common among the Zaporizhian Cossacks. According to legend, Dmitry Vishnevetsky, the founder of the Zaporizhzhya Sich, the legendary “Baida Veshnivetsky”, was executed in this way.

stoning
After the appropriate decision of the authorized legal body (the king or the court), a crowd of citizens gathered to kill the guilty person by throwing stones at him. At the same time, small stones should have been chosen so that the condemned person would not be exhausted too quickly. Or, in a more humane case, it could be one executioner, dropping one large stone from above on the condemned.
Currently, stoning is used in some Muslim countries. On January 1, 1989, stoning remained in the legislation of six countries of the world. An Amnesty International report gives an eyewitness account of a similar execution in Iran:
“Next to a wasteland, a lot of stones and pebbles were poured out of a truck, then they brought two women dressed in white, bags were put on their heads ... A hail of stones fell on them, turning their bags red ... The wounded women fell, and then the guards of the revolution broke through their heads with shovels to finally kill them.

Throwing to Predators
The oldest type of execution, common among many peoples of the world. Death came because the victim was bitten by crocodiles, lions, bears, snakes, sharks, piranhas, ants.

Walking in circles
A rare method of execution, practiced, in particular, in Rus'. The victim's stomach was steamed in the area of ​​the intestines, so that he would not die from blood loss. Then they took out an intestine, nailed it to a tree and forced it to walk in a circle around the tree. In Iceland, a special stone was used for this, around which they walked according to the verdict of the Thing.

Buried alive
A type of execution not very common in Europe, which is believed to have come to the Old World from the East, but there are several documentary evidence of the use of this type of execution that have come down to our time. Burial alive was applied to Christian martyrs. In medieval Italy, unrepentant murderers were buried alive. In Germany, female child killers were buried alive in the ground. In Russia of the 17th-18th centuries, women who killed their husbands were buried alive up to the neck.

crucifixion
Condemned to death, the hands and feet were nailed to the ends of the cross or the limbs were fixed with ropes. This is how Jesus Christ was executed. The main cause of death during crucifixion is asphyxia caused by developing pulmonary edema and fatigue of the intercostal muscles and abdominal muscles involved in the process of breathing. The main support of the body in this position is the hands, and when breathing, the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles had to lift the weight of the whole body, which led to their rapid fatigue. Also, squeezing the chest with tense muscles of the shoulder girdle and chest caused stagnation of fluid in the lungs and pulmonary edema. Additional causes of death were dehydration and blood loss.

Welding in boiling water
Welding in liquid was a common type of death penalty in different countries of the world. In ancient Egypt, this type of punishment was applied mainly to persons who disobeyed the pharaoh. The slaves of the pharaoh at dawn (specially so that Ra could see the criminal) made a huge fire, over which there was a cauldron of water (and not just water, but the dirtiest water, where waste was poured, etc.) Sometimes whole families.
This type of execution was widely used by Genghis Khan. In medieval Japan, boiling water was applied mainly to ninja who failed an assassination and were captured. In France, this execution was applied to counterfeiters. Sometimes intruders were boiled in boiling oil. There remains evidence of how in 1410 in Paris a pickpocket was boiled alive in boiling oil.

Pouring lead or boiling oil down the throat
It was used in the East, in Medieval Europe, in Rus' and among the Indians. Death came from a burn of the esophagus and strangulation. The punishment was usually set for counterfeiting, and often the metal from which the offender cast coins was poured. Those who did not die for a long time were cut off the head.

Execution in a bag
lat. Poena cullei. The victim was sewn into a bag with different animals (snake, monkey, dog or rooster) and thrown into the water. Practiced in the Roman Empire. Under the influence of the reception of Roman law in the Middle Ages, it was adopted (in a slightly modified form) in a number of European countries. Thus, in the French code of customary law "Livres de Jostice et de Plet" (1260), created on the basis of Justinian's Digest, it speaks of an "execution in a bag" with a rooster, a dog and a snake (the monkey is not mentioned, apparently for reasons of rarity this animal for medieval Europe). Somewhat later, an execution based on poena cullei also appeared in Germany, where it was used in the form of hanging a criminal (thief) upside down (sometimes hanging was carried out by one leg) together (on one gallows) with a dog (or two dogs hung on the right and left from the executed). This execution was called the "Jewish execution", since over time it began to be applied exclusively to Jewish criminals (it was applied to Christians in the rarest cases in the 16th-17th centuries).

Excoriation
Skinning has a very ancient history. Even the Assyrians skinned captured enemies or rebellious rulers and nailed them to the walls of their cities as a warning to those who would challenge their power. The Assyrian ruler Ashurnasirpal boasted that he flayed so many skins from the guilty nobility that he covered the columns with it.
Especially often used in Chaldea, Babylon and Persia. In ancient India, the skin was removed by fire. With the help of torches, she was burned to meat all over her body. With burns, the convict suffered for several days until death. In Western Europe, it was used as a method of punishment for traitors and traitors, as well as to ordinary people who were suspected of having love affairs with women of royal blood. Also, the skin was torn off the corpses of enemies or criminals for intimidation.

ling chi
Ling-chi (Chinese: “death by a thousand cuts”) is a particularly painful method of execution by cutting off small fragments from the body of the victim for a long period of time.
It was used in China for high treason and parricide in the Middle Ages and during the Qing dynasty until its abolition in 1905. In 1630, a prominent Ming commander Yuan Chonghuan was subjected to this execution. The proposal to abolish it was made back in the 12th century by the poet Lu Yu. During the Qing dynasty, ling-chi was performed in public places with a large gathering of onlookers for the purpose of intimidation. Surviving descriptions of the execution differ in detail. The victim was usually drugged with opium, either out of mercy or to prevent her from losing consciousness.

In his History of Torture of All Ages, George Riley Scott quotes from the notes of two Europeans who had the rare opportunity to be present at such an execution: their names were Sir Henry Norman (he saw this execution in 1895) and T. T. Ma-Dawes:

“There is a basket covered with a piece of linen, in which lies a set of knives. Each of these knives is designed for a certain part of the body, as evidenced by the inscriptions engraved on the blade. The executioner takes one of the knives at random from the basket and, based on the inscription, cuts off the corresponding part of the body. However, at the end of the last century, such a practice, in all likelihood, was supplanted by another, which left no room for chance and provided for cutting off parts of the body in a certain sequence with a single knife. According to Sir Henry Norman, the convict is tied to the likeness of a cross, and the executioner slowly and methodically cuts off first the fleshy parts of the body, then cuts the joints, cuts off individual limbs and ends the execution with one sharp blow to the heart ...

Perhaps, at all times there was the death penalty, and it could be sparing, that is, fast, or it could be long and painful. In modern times, the Geneva Convention on Human Rights has banned torture, but not the death penalty. There are 5 main types of the death penalty:

1 Lethal Injection

This is the most popular form of execution in the United States. The death chamber resembles a medical office, where the executed is placed on a lounger and secured with straps. Three substances are injected through a dropper into a vein in the arm: sodium thiopental, potassium chloride and bromide. The victim first loses consciousness, and then her diaphragm is paralyzed and her heart stops five minutes later. There are glass windows in the cell through which this not very pleasant process can be observed.

2. Execution

This type of execution is common in China. The sentenced are dressed in white, shackled and handcuffed, and tied to poles. Signs are hung around the neck indicating the crime committed. Opposite the criminals, at a distance of three meters, police officers with rifles stand and fire at the whistle in one gulp. If the victims still show signs of life, then the police shoot them.

3. Gas chamber

This death penalty is common only in five US states. The chamber is a steel capsule with a door, a chair for the victim, numerous holes and straps. Above it there is a pipe that disperses the gas into the atmosphere. The convict is stripped down to shorts (women are also left with a T-shirt), seated on a chair and fastened with belts under the chest, on the elbows, wrists, knees and ankles. A remote stethoscope is attached to the chest to record cardiac arrest. A basin with sulfuric acid is placed under the chair. When all outsiders leave the capsule, the door is closed and the executioner, using a remote control, pours sodium cyanide granules into sulfuric acid, as a result of which the chamber is filled with a poisonous substance - gaseous hydrocyanic acid. Already at the first breath, partial paralysis occurs, the cells cannot absorb oxygen, and death occurs in a couple of minutes. Although there are cases where the heart of the executed continues to beat for 15 minutes, for this reason, many states have abandoned this type of execution.

4. Hanging

Most hangings occur in Iran. Usually the execution is carried out in public and several people are executed at once. Most often, construction cranes are used instead of the gallows. The convicts are brought to the place of execution in handcuffs and in civilian clothes. Each of them is accompanied by 3-4 police officers. Before the execution is carried out, the criminals are laid face down on the ground and the executioners beat them with whips on the back. After that, they are lifted, put on a noose around the neck and the crane boom is raised to a height of up to 20 meters, so that they can be seen from afar. Death occurs within 10-15 minutes from suffocation or earlier, if you're lucky, from rupture of the cervical vertebrae.

5. Electric chair

Previously, this type of execution was very common, but now it is considered the most wild and barbaric. And despite this, it is used in 13 US states. The convict is tied to a wooden chair, his eyes and mouth are sealed with adhesive tape, then electrodes are attached to his shaved legs and head, through which a current of 2000 volts is supplied by means of a knife switch. The voltage is turned on twice for one minute with a break of 10 seconds. After the power is turned off, the doctor must make sure that the person being executed is dead. If by some miracle he remained alive, then the current discharge is repeated, in rare cases, the attempt can be repeated 5 times. Although in some states, if after the third attempt the offender is still alive, he may be pardoned. This type of execution is not for the faint of heart, and many who come to watch faint at the sight of the victim's convulsions, smoking skin, and blood spilling from under the sticky tapes.