oh, the inhumanity
A macabre encyclopedia of humanity’s most creative cruelties
Scaphism
Scaphism, known as “the boats,” was an ancient Persian execution method that relied on confinement, exposure, and time rather than direct violence. By sealing a victim between two boats and letting nature complete the sentence, it turned the environment itself into the executioner.
Enslavement
Enslavement turns survival into a sentence, binding the defeated to the victors long after the noise of battle fades. It is conquest extended in time, where mercy is measured not by freedom, but by how much labor a spared life can still produce.
Burying Alive
Burial alive turns the earth itself into an executioner, delivering death through silence, pressure, and time rather than a visible blow. It is a punishment designed to erase the condemned while allowing the living to pretend their hands remain clean.
Gassing Civilians
Gassing civilians is violence designed for scale rather than confrontation, turning shared air into an indiscriminate weapon. It kills without touch or witness, relying on chemistry, distance, and bureaucracy to replace the executioner’s hand. More than a method of death, it is a philosophy of power that treats populations as environments to be controlled rather than lives to be spared.