TEN POINTS BEST ANSWER.history assignment ideas-ancient punishment?

Question

hey, i have to do a year ten history speech about an ancient form of punishment, and i also have to make a model of the punishment.we've already done the electric chair,guillidone,and gallows. any help is much appreciated. and remember, tomorrow i'll give ten points to the best answer.THANKS

Answer 1

1. The Blood Eagle was reportedly a method of torture and execution that is sometimes mentioned in Norse saga literature. It was performed by cutting the ribs of the victim by the spine, breaking the ribs so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out. Salt was reportedly sprinkled in the wounds. Victims of the blood-eagle ritual, as mentioned in skaldic poetry and the Norse sagas, are believed to have included King Ælla (Ella)of Northumbria, Halfdan son of King Haraldr Hárfagri of Norway, King Edmund, King Maelgualai of Munster, and possibly Archbishop Ælfheah.

The process is described here in Viking sources:-
* The Orkneyinga saga[1]: "Next morning when it was light they went to look for runagate men among the isles if any had got away; and each was slain on the spot as he stood. Then earl Einar took to saying these words: "I know not what I see in Rinansey, sometimes it lifts itself up, but sometimes it lays itself down, that is either a bird or a man, and we will go to it." There they found Halfdan Long-leg, and Einar made them carve an eagle on his back with a sword, and cut the ribs all from the backbone, and draw the lungs there out, and gave him to Odin for the victory he had won (10) then Einar sung this:".
* Norna-Gests þáttr, as two stanzas of verse near the end of its section 6 "Sigurd Felled the Sons of Hunding", where a character describing previous events says "Now the blood eagle / With a broad sword / The killer of Sigmund / Carved on the back. // Fewer were more valiant / As the troops dispersed / A chief of people / Who made the raven glad.".


2. The breaking wheel (also known as Catherine wheel; originally, the whele) was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death. It was not used for coercion through torture.


3. Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, where the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang there until dead. It is widely considered a not uncommon but extremely dishonorable and painful form of judicial execution in the Roman Empire, though similar methods were employed in other ancient cultures such as Persia. Crucifixion has special significance in Christianity, which holds that Jesus was crucified as the final part of the atonement, but within three days he was resurrected. Because of this the Christian cross or crucifix has become the main symbol of Christianity (an alternative clandestine symbol since Roman persecution was the Ichthys).
Crucifixion was used by the Romans until about AD 313, when Christianity was legalized in the Roman Empire and soon became the official state religion. However, it has been used in various places in modern times.


4. Decapitation (from Latin, caput, capitis, meaning head), or beheading, is the removal of a living organism's head. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, or knife, or by means of a guillotine. Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion, automobile or industrial accident or other violent injury. Suicide by decapitation is rare, but not unknown. In 2003 a British man killed himself by means of a home-made guillotine, constructed over a period of several weeks. Decapitation is invariably fatal, as brain death occurs within seconds to minutes without the support of the organism's body. There is no way to provide life support for a severed head with current medical techniques.
The word decapitation can also refer, on occasion, to the removal of the head of someone who is already dead, i.e., to a corpse. This would have probably made the most sense for the purpose of displaying the head to prove the fact of the individual's death or to instill fear in the populace by illustrating the likely fate of an enemy of the authorities.


5. Hanging is a form of execution or a method of committing suicide. It has been used throughout history as a form of capital punishment, first in the Persian Empire, and is still used in some countries. There are four methods of hanging — the long, short and standard drops, as well as suspension hanging.
The typical sentence involving hanging is that the condemned person "be hanged by the neck until dead". A more elaborate sentence, once used for particularly heinous crimes such as high treason in England, was for the person to be hanged, drawn and quartered — here the victim was saved from asphyxiation in order to endure further ordeals.


6. An iron maiden is an iron cabinet allegedly built to torture or kill a person by piercing his body with sharp objects (such as knives, spikes, or nails), while the victim is forced to remain standing. The victim bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly and dies of a combination of shock and blood loss, if not asphyxiation.
The most famous, and probably the first, device was the iron maiden of Nuremburg. According to a hoax by Johann Philipp Siebenkees in 1793, it was first used on August 14, 1515 to execute a coin forger. The iron maiden was actually built in the 19th century as a misinterpretation of a medieval "Schandmantel" (infamy cloak), which was made of wood and tin but without spikes. The infamy cloak did not harm the body, and it was used as a chastisement for poachers and prostitutes, who were made to wear it in public for a certain time.


7. Scaphism, also known as the boats, is an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The name comes from the Greek word skaphe, meaning "scooped (or hollowed) out".
The naked victim would be firmly fastened within a back-to-back pair of narrow rowboats (or in some variations a hollowed out tree trunk), the head, hands, and feet protruding from this improvised container.
The victim was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body so as to attract insects to the exposed appendages. He would then be left to float on a stagnant pond (or alternately, simply exposed to the sun somewhere). The defenseless victim's feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his exposed (and increasingly gangrenous) flesh. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock.
In other recorded versions, the insects did not eat the victim; biting and stinging insects such as wasps, which were attracted by honey on the body, acted as the torture.
Death by scaphism is painful, humiliating, and protracted. Historical records suggest that one Mithridates, sentenced to die in this manner for a perceived insult to the king, survived for 17 days before dying....

Answer 2

The scene from Braveheart was a depiction of a man being drawn and quartered. That is a horrific torture but there are some that are worse in my opinion. The Chinese had a torture called "Death by a thousand cuts" they would make small cuts all over your body until, after a long time and a lot of suffering, you died. American Indian cultures, especially the Iroquoi and Algonquians, inflicted some of the worse torture I have ever read about. Captives in war would be ritually subjected to running gauntlets repeatedly and then being slowly burned at the stake. If you proved your bravery by not screaming they would cut out your heart and eat it. Another torture they practiced was to tie a captive up to a pole and then scrape their skin off with oyster shells until the captive died from shock. Any book on Algonquian Indians should give you a more detailed account. The Spanish Inquisition is also a treasure trove of torture techniques. Medieval Europe employed gruesome torture techniques as well. "Turning the Screws" was when a captive was strapped to a chair and screws were slowly turned underneath their fingernails. Impaling someone on a pole. If you were particularly despised the pole's tip would be dulled so that you would be impaled slower. The Iron Maiden is a classic too. Whatever you can imagine has already been done. Personally the worst torture has got to be Michael Bolton!

Answer 3

History Assignment Ideas

Answer 4

I see that the majority of the tortures listed here have to do with dismemberment, bone breaking, or some sort of blood indulged action that causes excrutioating pain. Though obviously thats what torture's about, there is one not listed so far that does not deal with pain or blood, but can be just as devistating. Im talking about Chinese water torture, actually the process is very simple. they strap you down onto a table, your head included so it can't move, then they would use a bamboo pipe or something of that nature and put it above your head and just let the water drip on your forehead, this doesn't sound like it would do much,but, after a little while, youve become malnurished no food or water, your lips are cracking and your body aches because you are strapped securly to a table, and the only thing next to the dead silence is just drip...drip...drip...drip on your forehead water that you can't get to thats about 2 inches away from your mouth. The idea of this torture is usually to make somebody go crazy, which ive heard it is very good at doing. So this isn't a brutal torture, but i think if you wanted to do something different than everybody else, this would be awesome, you have to do a speech, stand up in front of the class and to begin just start saying drip...drip...drip...drip... until the class or teacher starts to look annoyed (now youve proven your point of the torture), then explain that if they are bored or annoyed just by you saying drip, then tell them try it being strapped to a table for a few days without food and water dripping on your head that you can't get to or drink. Then explain the whole history of it and such.

Answer 5

drawn and quartered really hurt, and was a statement few wished to make.
Drawing and quartering is another punishment mentioned in kids' movies only because nobody realizes what's involved. The statutory punishment for treason in England from 1283 to 1867, D&Q was a multimedia form of execution. First the prisoner was drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle, a type of sledge. (Originally he was merely dragged behind a horse.) Then he was hanged. Cut down while still alive, he was disembowelled and his entrails burned before his eyes. (Some references, such as the Encyclopedia Britannica, say this step, and not dragging behind a horse, is what is meant by "drawn," but actual sentences of execution don't support this view.)

Answer 6

The puritan's used to put people in what looked like oxen-cart like contraption to PUBLICLY humiliate. People would rest their head and hands in this wooden rest and then a piece of wood would come down over the top, and they would have to stay that way, sometimes for days. It looked like a gigantic wooden collar.

Another form of punishment in Europe was against the Anabaptist sect of Protestantism, they would drowned people, because the Anabaptist's believed you shouldn't be able to be baptized until you were an adult, which was wrong according to the Catholic church

Way back in time was Vlad the Impaler, he lived probably in the 1300's and would impale people he didn't like, they would be impaled on a spike that was pointed, so the victims were shoved onto a spike in the ground, he was so weird and so gruesome, he liked to listen to people crying and would have his meals taken near where the impaled, were dying. He is thought to be the source of the stories about Dracula he was Vlad Dracul before he got his Impaler name

Answer 7

If it's to be ancient punishment crucifixion would be a possibility. It's a very grusome form of killing people. The Romans used this quite frequently esp. for slaves. (Some information on crucifixion here: http://mb-soft.com/believe/text/crucifix.htm)

If you want something more unusal though what about these Greek methods? In ancient Athens a standard form of death penalty was by 'apotympanismos'. This is being attached to a plank in some way and left to die. It is a bit unclear how this punishment worked, but it sounds a bit like crucifixion. MacDowell says of this punishment: 'The condemned man was fastened to an upright wooden board by five iron bands around his neck, wrists and ankles secured by nails. He either died from exposure and starvation or perhaps was strangled by the iron collar. This method was used for persons condemned to death for homicide, and also for traitors and thieves.'

Here is a description of this punishment from Herodotus' Histories (combined with stoning - another horrible but standard ancient punishment). 'They carried Artayctes away to the headland where Xerxes had bridged the strait (or, by another story, to the hill above the town of Madytus), and there nailed him to boards and hanged him. As for his son, they stoned him to death before his father's eyes.'

An alternative punishment in ancient Athens was drinking hemlock. This is how the philosopher Socrates was put to death.

Other mythical punishments that spring to mind are those inflicted in Hades on men who have angered the gods during their lives (obviously these stories are not real historical punishments though!). Sisyphus is made to roll a giant stone up a hill and every time he reaches the top the stone falls back down. So he is constantly occupied in this pursuit. Tantalus is placed in water with vines above his head, but every time he bends to drink the water recedes and every time he reaches up for grapes, the vines draw back so he is permantently thirsty and hungry and the food and drink are 'tantalizingly' out of reach (hence the word tantalize) The source for these punishments is Homer 'Odyssey' book 11 lines 582ff.

Answer 8

what about the cross? crucifixion was the most popular form of execution in the Roman empire for hundreds of years. Plus there's lots of info about it because of Christianity's links to it. And it's easy to make a model of it.

Crucifixion was reserved for non-citizens of the Roman empire, and for non-Romans accused of heinous crimes. If I remember correctly. I think Roman citizens were beheaded, because it was considered more humane. Which is true, since crucifixion is actually death by suffocation, not blood loss or exposure as many Christians believe. The person on the cross has to hold himself up by his trunk and arm muscles in an effort to keep his lungs open for breath. Eventually he would become too exhausted and would have to give up holding himself up. Then he would slowly suffocate - lovely. And quick fact: it was not common practice to nail people to crosses - they were usually tied onto the cross. This is because the nails alone would have ripped through the hand's soft tissue due to the weight of the body. So Jesus was probably tied to the cross as well as nailed.

Answer 9

I would say do something on the Brazen bull. This was a device used by the Greeks to kill enemy's of the state. They had a bull made of bronze and would light a fire under it. The person would be locked inside. It would cook them to death, slowly. It is said that their screams would sound like a bull bellowing of brazing. Wow what a way to go!

Answer 10

The cat 'o' nine tails was used as a punishment for convicts. I is made up of nine lengths of medium thickness string, with nots up each length. I was designed to inflict as much pain as possible with out causing death. How ever if it hard enough it could rip flesh from bone. It was very popular in Port Arthur (Tas, Aust)

Answer 11

I went to a Renaissance fair and they had a torture museum and the one that look most horrific was they put a person on a chair that went down a slide right into a large blade cutting them in half. OUCH!