6. Flaying excruciatingly removed the skin of the victim, exposing the tender nerves and blood vessels beneath to the outside world, leading to immense pain and probable death by infection.
Flaying, also known as skinning, is a method of torture (and often execution) whereby the skin of the victim is gradually removed from the body in a precise fashion. Whilst flaying after death has been historically recorded, typically as a means of debasing the enemy’s honor and reserved for instances such as criminality, the predominant occurrences took place during life. Whilst small-scale flaying, although painful, is endurable, large-scale skinning inevitably leads to death. If the individual survives the initial shock and avoids critical loss of blood during the torture, then they will likely die days later due to infection.
The practice of flaying was popularized under the Neo-Assyrian Empire during the 9th century BCE, with carvings dating to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883-859 BCE) depicting the gruesome details. Royal edicts dating from the time of Ashurnasirpal II glorify the deed, proclaiming “I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins”. Continuing in usage throughout Medieval Europe, most commonly as part of the execution of traitors, flaying became so popular in Imperial China that the Hongwu Emperor ordered the mass flaying of 5,000 women in 1396.