Impalement, as a method of torture and execution, is the penetration of a human by an object such as a stake, pole, spear, or hook, often by the complete or partial perforation of the torso. It was particularly used in response to "crimes against the state" and is regarded across a number of cultures as a very harsh form of capital punishment and recorded in myth and art. Impalement was also used during times of war to suppress rebellions, punish traitors or collaborators, and punish breaches of military discipline.
Offences where impalement was occasionally employed included contempt for the state's responsibility for safe roads and trade routes by committing highway robbery or grave robbery, violating state policies or monopolies, or subverting standards for trade. Offenders have also been impaled for a variety of cultural, sexual, and religious reasons.
References to impalement in Babylonia and the Neo-Assyrian Empire are found as early as the 18th century BC.
Methods
Longitudinal impalement Impaling an individual along the body length has been documented in several cases, and the merchant Jean de Thevenot provides an eyewitness account of this from 17th-century Egypt, in the case of a man condemned to death for the use of false weights:Thévenot (1687) p. 259 Other highly detailed accounts on methods are: 1. Extremely detailed description of the execution of Archbishop Serapheim in 1601. Vaporis (2000), pp. 101–102 2. Jean Coppin's account from 1640s Cairo, very similar to Thévenot's, Raymond (2000), p. 240 3. Stavorinus (1798) p. 288–291 4. von Taube (1777) footnote ** p. 70–71 5. The regrettably highly partisan "Aiolos (2004)" , notes on methods partly from Guer, see Guer (1747),p. 162 6. d'Arvieux (1755), p. 230–31 7. Recollection 20 years after second-hand narration, Massett (1863), p. 88–89 8. Ivo Andric's novel "The Bridge on the Drina", follows Serapheim execution (1.) closely. Excerpt: The Bridge on the Drina 9. A literary rendition in The Casket, from 1827, Purser (1827), p. 337 10. Koller (2004), p. 145–46
Survival time
The length of time which one managed to survive upon the stake is reported as quite varied, from a few seconds or minutes2 died during impalement process, Blount (1636), p. 52 9 minutes, 1773 case, Hungary: Korabinsky (1786) p. 139 to a few hours1800 assassin of General Kleber a few hours Shepherd (1814)p. 255, six hours Hurd (1814),p. 308 or even a few days.fifteen hours Bond (1856) p. 172–73 24+ hours von Taube (1777), footnote ** p. 70–71, Hartmann (1799)p. 520, two to three days von Troilo (1676) p. 45, Hueber (1693) p. 480, Dampier (1729)p. 140, "Aiolos (2004)" , d'Arvieux (1755), p. 230–31, Moryson, Hadfield (2001), pp. 170–171 two to three days in warm weather, dead by midnight in cold, Mentzel, Allemann (1919), p. 102 The Dutch overlords at Batavia seem to have been particularly proficient in prolonging the lifetime of the impaled, one witnessing a man surviving six days on the stake,de Pages (1791) p. 284 another hearing from local surgeons that some could survive eight days or more.Stavorinus (1798)p. 288–291 A critical determinant for survival length seems to be precisely how the stake was inserted: If it went into the "interior" parts, vital organs could easily be damaged, leading to a swift death. However, by letting the stake follow the spine, the impalement procedure would not damage the vital organs, and the person could survive for several days.For following the spine: von Taube (1777), footnote ** p. 70–71, Stavorinus (1798)p. 288–291 Another description, using a 15 cm thick stake, let it pass between the liver and the rib cage, Koller (2004), p. 145
Weather and seasons also affected duration of life after impalement. One example given of weather affecting death is noted by Stavorinus. A man was impaled following the spine. A light shower fell the next day. He died half an hour later. Stavorinus also mentions there having been instances of impalement during the dry season, in which people have survived for eight days or more without food or drink. A guard would be stationed near the site of execution to prevent food or drink to be given. A surgeon also explained to Stavorinus, how rain and other wet weather caused a quicker death. Water enters the wound caused by impalement. The wound then "mortifies" and causes gangrene to attack more "noble parts," causing "death almost immediately."
Transversal impalement Alternatively, the impalement could be transversely performed, as in the frontal-to-dorsal direction, that is, from front (through abdomen,von Meyer von Knonau (1855)p. 176, column 2, Example of thrusting a roasting spit through the stomach on orders of 16th Central Asian ruler Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat upon his own nephew, Elias, Ross (1898), p. 227 chestFor extra-cardial chest impalement Döpler (1697) p. 371 or directly through the heartRoch (1687)pp. 350–51) to back or vice versa.A possible case of 16th-century dorsal-to-front impalement is given by di Varthema (1863) p. 147 See also wood block print in Dracula subsection. In addition, the alleged "bamboo torture" seems to presume a dorsal-to-front impalement, see specific sub-section
In the Holy Roman Empire (and elsewhere in Central/Eastern Europe), women who killed their newborn babies were placed in open graves, and stakes were hammered into their hearts, particularly if their cases contained any implications of witchcraft. A detailed description of an execution that was carried out in this manner comes from 17th-century Kassa, Hungary (now Košice, eastern Slovakia). The case of a woman who was to be executed for infanticide involved an executioner and two assistants. First, a grave some one-and-a-half ell deep was dug. The woman was then placed within it, her hands and feet were secured by driving nails through them. The executioner placed a small thorn bush upon her face. He then placed, and held vertically, a wooden stave on her heart in order to mark its location, while his assistants piled earth on the woman, keeping her head free of earth at the behest of the clerics, because to do otherwise would have quickened the death process. Once the earth had been piled upon her, the executioner used a pair of tongs to grab a rod made of iron, which had been made red hot. He positioned the glowing iron rod beside the wooden stave, and as one of his assistants hammered the rod in, the other assistant emptied a trough of earth upon the woman's head. It is said that a scream was heard, and the earth moved upwards for a moment, before it was all over.Wagner (1687), p. 55 Note: The German word "Pfahl" (with the associated verb "zu pfählen") refers to a wooden stake, and it is the word used in influential law texts like the 1532 Constitutio Criminalis Carolina, so the reader should not assume that the use of a heated metal rod was standard procedure. In the 1532 law text, see Koch (1824) p. 63
Variations
Gaunching
Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, travelling on botanical research in the Levant 1700–1702, observed both ordinary longitudinal impalement, but also a method called "gaunching", in which the condemned is hoisted up by means of a rope over a row of sharp metal hooks. He is then released, and depending on how the hooks enter his body, he may survive in impaled condition for a few days.de Tournefort (1741) p. 98–100 A detailed description of the apparatus and procedure of gaunching can be found in Mundy (1907), pp. 55–56 and in Moryson, Hadfield (2001), pp. 170–171 Forty years earlier than de Tournefort, de Thévenot described much the same process, adding that it was seldom used because it was regarded as too cruel.Thévenot (1687)p. 68–69. For a fourth description plus drawing, see Schweigger (1613), p. 173 Schweigger adds that many times, people are allowed to shorten the gaunched individual's time of misery by cutting his throat or decapitating him. Alexander Russell, from 1740s Aleppo knew of instances of "gaunching", but said those were rare, compared with other types of capital punishment.Russell (1794)p. 334 Some 80 years prior to de Thevenot, in 1579, Hans Jacob Breuning von BuchenbachBreuning von Buchenbach, Hans Jakob witnessed a variant of the gaunching ritual. A large iron hook was fixed on the horizontal cross-bar of the gallows and the individual was forced upon this hook, piercing him from the abdomen through his back, so that he hung from it, hands, feet and head downward. On top of the cross bar, the executioner situated himself and performed various torture on the impaled man below him.Buchenbach (1612), pp. 86–87
Hooks in the city wall While gaunching as de Tournefort describes involves the erection of a scaffold, it seems that in the city of Algiers, hooks were embedded in the city walls, and on occasion, people were thrown upon them from the battlements.
Thomas Shaw,Thomas Shaw who was chaplain for the Levant Company stationed at Algiers during the 1720s, describes the various forms of executions practised as follows:Shaw (1757) p. 253–254 Shaw's contemporary John Braithwaite reports impalement and throwing onto hooks for Morocco as well, Braithwaite (1729) p. 366 On Morocco and Fez, see also the travel account by Sieur Mouette, who was captive there from 1670 to 1682, Stevens (1711), p. 69
According to one source, these hooks in the wall as an execution method were introduced with the construction of the new city gate in 1573. Before that time, gaunching as described by de Tournefort was in use.Morgan (1729) p. 392 As for the actual frequency of throwing persons on hooks in Algiers, Capt. Henry Boyde notesin one of his acerbic comments and footnotes to translated accounts from Catholic priests' narratives of the redemption of slaves. Examples of other such acerbic notes: Boyde (1736) p. 3, p. 25, p. 35, p. 44 (compares French and Algerine slavery), p. 45, p. 51, p. 52 that in his own 20 years of captivity there, he knew of only one case where a Christian slave who had murdered his master had met that fate, and "not above" two or three Moors besides.Boyde (1736) p. 75, footnote Taken captive in 1596, the barber-surgeon William Davies relates something of the heights involved when thrown upon hooks (although it is somewhat unclear if this relates specifically to the city of Algiers, or elsewhere in the Barbary States): "Their ganshing is after this manner: he sitteth upon a wall, being five fathoms [30 feet, or about 9m] high, within two fathoms [12 feet or about 3.6m] of the top of the wall; right under the place where he sits, is a strong iron hook fastened, being very sharp; then he is thrust off the wall upon this hook, with some part of his body, and there he hangeth, sometimes two or three days, before he dieth." Davies adds that "these deaths are very seldom", but that he had personally witnessed it.Osborne (1745), p. 478
Hanged by the ribs
A slightly variant way of executing people by means of impalement was to force an iron meat hook beneath a person's ribs and hang him up to die slowly. This technique was in 18th-century Ottoman-controlled Bosnia called the cengela,Koller (2004), p. 146 but the practice is also attested in 1770s Dutch Suriname as a punishment meted out to rebellious slaves.Stedman (1813) p. 116
Bamboo Torture
A recurring horror story on many websites and popular media outlets is that Japanese soldiers during World War II inflicted bamboo torture upon prisoners of war.As an example of popular promotion of this horror story, see The victim was supposedly tied securely in place above a young bamboo shoot. Over several days, the sharp, fast growing shoot would first puncture, then completely penetrate the victim's body, eventually emerging through the other side. However, no conclusive evidence exists that this form of impalement ever actually happened.
History
Antiquity
Mesopotamia and the ancient Near East