High visibility punishment and deterrent: Impalement in Assyrian warfare and legal practice

Radner, Karen (19. März 2016): High visibility punishment and deterrent: Impalement in Assyrian warfare and legal practice. In: Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblische Rechtsgeschichte, Bd. 21: S. 103-128

Abstract

In modern times, two forms of capital punishment practised in the Assyrian Empire have profoundly influenced the assessment of this state as using excessive, undifferentiated brutality in conquering and controlling the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean from the 9th to the 7th century BC: flaying and impalement. Although this paper will touch on flaying at times, I have chosen to focus on impalement, as its use was not restricted to war- fare but also applied as a tool of Assyrian legal practice. This made the topic a good fit for a conference aiming to discuss punishment and the threat of punishment in the context of deterrent, retaliation and compensation.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Publikationsform: Postprint
• Keywords: Assyria, legal history, corporal punishment, war
• Fakultät: Geschichts- und Kunstwissenschaften > Historisches Seminar > Alte Geschichte
• Themengebiete: 900 Geschichte und Geografie > 930 Geschichte des Altertums (bis ca. 499), Archäologie
• ISSN: 0948-0587
• Sprache: Englisch