Medieval Execution, Death by Sawing, 1474

Medieval Execution, Death by Sawing, 1474

The term "death by sawing" indicates the act of sawing a living person in half. Most often the victim was suspended upside down, most of the blood will go to the head. The torturers would saw into the victim's crotch, all of the blood in the head will oxygenate the brain so that the victim will not pass out as one normally would under such excruciating pain. Typically, the saw would reach the victim's navel before unconsciousness would take hold, sometimes as far as the midriff. In the story about Simon the Zealot, the person is explicitly described as being hung upside-down and sawn apart vertically through the middle, starting at the groin. Different methods of death by sawing have been recorded. Death by sawing was a method of execution reportedly used in different parts of the world. In cases related to the Roman Emperor Caligula, the sawing is said to be through the middle. In the cases of Morocco, it is stated that the sawing was lengthwise, both from the groin and upwards, and from the skull and downwards.

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