Impalement

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about piercing with a stake or point for torture or execution. For the magic trick, see Impaled

See also Impalement in heraldry

Impalement is an act of torture and/or execution whereby the victim is pierced by a long stake. The penetration can be through the sides, from the rectum, or possibly through the mouth. The stake would be usually planted in the ground, leaving the victim hanging to die.

In some forms of impalement, the stake would be inserted so as to avoid immediate death, and would function as a plug to prevent blood loss — thus extending the victim's agony for many hours. One way to achieve this gradual death is to insert the stake through the rectum deep into the body of the victim until it left the body near the right shoulder, thus avoiding damaging the heart.

The term impalement is also used to describe deep stabbing wounds that occur in accidents where objects are driven through the body, for example by falling onto a spike, or being driven onto one in an automobile accident. Removing these objects presents a severe surgical challenge.

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History

The use of impalement as a form of execution in Ancient Persia is evidenced by carvings and statues from the ancient Near East. According to the Ancient Greek historian Herodotus (3.159), Darius I impaled 3,000 Babylonians when he took Babylon: this is recorded in the Behistun inscription. In Ancient Rome, impalement was superseded by crucifixion.

Impalement was used in Sweden during the 17th century, particularly as a death penalty for members of the resistance in the former Danish province Terra Scania (the so called "snapphanar)", where the stake was inserted between the spine and the skin of the victim. In that way, it could take four to five days before the victim died.

Turkish Ottoman Empire had also used impalement, as a punishment to rebellious Christians in its occupied European teritories, mostly upon Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks.

From the 14th to 18th century, impalement was a traditional method of execution for high treason in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Impalement is said to have been frequently practiced in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. Vlad III Dracula and Ivan the Terrible have passed into legend as major users of the method.

One particularly gruesome form of impalement involved being forced to stand over a wide stake which was just tall enough that it penetrated the victim's rectum deeply. This left them unable to remove themselves, or to sit. As their legs tired, they would slowly sink onto the stake, which eventually would cause mortal damage, but only over the course of hours, or even days.

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