Impalement is a term that refers to situations in which objects are driven through the body, causing deep stabbing wounds. It can refer either to accidental events or to deliberate wounding used as a method of torture or execution. A further use of the term is found in stage magic, where illusions such as Impaled simulate accidental or deliberate impalement.
In medicine, impalement injuries are a major surgical challenge. Such injuries have been noted in accidents where people have fallen onto spiked objects, such as railings, or in automobile accidents.
Torture and execution
Impalement as a method of torture and execution involves a person being pierced with a long stake. The penetration could be through the sides, through the rectum, through the vagina, or through the mouth. This method leads to a painful death; sometimes taking days. The stake would often be planted in the ground, leaving the impaled person suspended 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 person's agony for as many as three days [1]. After suitable preparation of the victim, including public torture and rape, the victim was stripped and an incision was made in the groin between the genitals and rectum. A stout pole with a blunt end was inserted. The blunt end would push vital organs to the side where a sharp end would pierce them, hastening death. A conveniently suitable branch was often used.
The pole would often come out of the body at the top of the sternum and be placed against the lower jaw so that the victim would not slide farther down the pole. Often, the victim was hoisted into the air after partial impalement. Gravity and the victim's own struggles would cause them to slide down the pole, especially if the pole were on a wagon carrying war prizes and prisoner. Death could take many days.
Impalement of Judeans in a Neo-Assyrian relief.
History
The use of impalement as a form of execution in civilizations of the Ancient Near East, is evidenced by carvings and statues from the ancient Near East. This form of execution is also mentionend in the Bible, the fourth book of the Torah, the Book of Numbers 25,4 ("Take all the chiefs of the people, and impale them in the sun before the LORD..."). According to Ancient Greek historian Herodotus (3.159), Darius I impaled 3,000 Babylonians when he took Babylon: their execution is also recorded in the Behistun inscription. In ancient Rome, the term "crucifixion" could also refer to impalement. Ancient authors also report the use of "crucifixion" (which may have meant impalement as well) in Carthage, where it was used for extreme cases of treachery and failure on the battlefield, usually combined with other forms of torture.
Impalement was used in Sweden during the 17th century, particularly as a death penalty for members of the resistance in the former Danish provincescitation needed, the Scanian lands (the so called "Snapphane)", 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.
In MalayAdat law, the traditional punishment for adultery before the modern age was that of impalement, known in Malay as Hukum Sula. A pole was inserted through the anus and pushed up to pierce the heart or lungs of the condemned, the pole thereupon being hoisted and inserted into the ground.
The Zulu of South Africa used impalement as a form of punishment for soldiers who had failed in the execution of their duty, or who had exhibited cowardice.[2]
The Araucanian chief Caupolican suffered this death as a prisoner during the Spanish colonization of Chile. The method used was to make him sit on a stake while his wife was forced to watch.[3]
