Over the centuries, there have been many bizarre and brutal ways of executing condemned criminals.
In Roman times, prisoners were sometimes even forced to fight lions without any weapons
or protection which would lead to their death.
Also in the Medieval times, some of the most savage execution methods included Hanging,
Drawing and quartering and beheading by axe.
In the Tudor period, Mary I would get a reputation for burning protestants at the stake but one
of the most fearsome and horrifying methods of execution was being buried alive.
Premature burial or live burial involved a condemned person being either interred in
the ground or being locked in a structure to suffer.
Join us today as we look at this brutal execution method, and remember to support our channel
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Being buried alive would cause death through either suffocation, dehydration, starvation
or even hypothermia.
However whilst interred underground, someone could last some time and this would result
in someone dying rather slowly as opposed to other methods of execution.
This would be torture as someone would have a significant amount of time to comprehend
their death and imminent demise, and this would be horrific psychological pain.
It is a common fear being buried alive, and has been used for centuries.
Inside of China, the burning of books and burying of scholars was carried out by the
first emperor of unified China.
In this persecution, hundreds of books and texts seemed too progressive were burned and
also 460 Confucian scholars were buried alive in the year 212 BC.
There have been doubts whether this happened or was just propaganda however German tribes
would also use burial alive.
They would tie a victim to a wicker frame and would then push them down in the mud and
bury them causing them to suffocate.
It was even debated that the execution method was used in England during the Dark Ages,
and Ancient Persia used the custom too.
It was said, ‘it is a Persian custom to bury people alive for I have heard that Amestris
having grown old, caused 14 children of the best families in Persia to be buried alive,
to show her gratitude to god who is said to be beneath the earth.’
So here it was used as a method of sacrifice.
But one execution method linked to the practice was immurement.
This was when someone would be walled in alive, and a group who were subject to this was the
Vestal Virgins, who when they broke their vow of celibacy they were immured alive and
buried inside of Rome.
They were held inside of subterraneans cells, and were then left to perish and suffer and
there were 10 accounts of the women being immured for breaking their vows.
Elizabeth Bathory, the Hungarian Countess who is linked to Vlad the Impaler was immured
inside of a number of rooms in 1610.
She was sentenced to it as she was deemed a murderer who possibly had hundreds of victims.
Four years after her immurement was sealed, she died inside of the rooms but was supplied
with food.
Inside of Denmark, and a city statue there a female robber was buried alive, and it was
said in Danish law that adulterous women were punished in the way.
But inside of the Roman Empire, there were many offences that could lead to someone being
buried alive.
These include infanticide and murder, and female murderers risked being buried alive.
There was one example in 1505 in Germany of a 13 year old girl being buried alive beneath
the gallows where a 12 year old boy was hanged.
Further burials alive continued throughout the centuries, for example 10 women were buried
in Berlin, and also one woman was even impaled through the heart after her burial.
This combination of live burial and impalement was used specifically in Nuremberg, but was
deemed too brutal and instead the local council changed their method of execution to drowning.
It was said in one execution, ‘The verdict commanded the executioner to place the perpetrator
in the grave alive, "and place two layers of thorns, the one beneath, the other above
her.
Prior to that he should place a bowl over her face, in which he had made a hole, and
to give her through that (in order that she would live for a longer time and expiate the
evil act she was condemned for), a reed/tube into the mouth, then jump three times upon
her, and lastly cover her with earth”.’
In the 1500s in the Habsburg Netherlands, the Catholic Church tried to eradicate any
Protestant influence inside of the country.
To do this, they used live burial as a method to punish women who were found guilty of heresy
and the last of these women executed took place in 1597.
It was said that when her head was above ground she was given a chance to recant her faith,
and when she refused to do so she was covered up and died.
This execution caused huge protest at the time, and forced the authorities to calm the
persecution down, using fines to punish heretics rather than death.
Russia also used burial alive, and they called it the pit.
Women who murdered their husbands were thrown into the pit, and there were many other accounts
throughout history of people being buried alive.
The Khymer Rouge used the practice as a form of execution in the Killing Fields, and during
Chairman Mao’s regime it was also used.
The fear of Burial alive was utilised by the mafia, and during the Second World War there
were large scale atrocities committed by the Japanese army.
They buried dozens of people alive during the Nanking Massacre, and the Germans also
used this against Jews in Ukraine and Belarus as they committed horrific persecution and
killings on the Eastern Front.
As mentioned one common fear is being buried alive, and throughout history it has been
used a large number of times by many different countries.
It would have been a horrific way to go, as slowly someone would be suffocating and they
would be aware of what was happening to them.
As each spade of earth was placed ontop of someone, they would be closer to their fate.
Immurement was also incredibly terrifying, and being walled in was another form of this
execution which was savage.
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