5. Premature burial forces an unfortunate individual to endure their last moments trapped beneath the earth, starved for oxygen whilst experiencing never-ending panic attacks.
Premature or live burial, as the name suggests, refers to the practice of burying an individual whilst they are still alive. Differing from immurement by both method and intent, those subjected to premature burial are interred with the purpose of execution, and, in contrast to the entombing of persons within walls, the victims die far quicker when buried. Unlike immurement, where the victims suffer for days or possibly weeks, those buried alive most commonly die long before dehydration takes effect. Instead, asphyxiation is the most common cause of death in live burials, with the individual, unless carefully buried, unable to breathe.
The earliest recorded instances of intentional live burials date from 212 BCE in China, where, during the persecution of “subversives” by the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, approximately 460 Confucian scholars were buried alive. Centuries later, Tacitus noted Germanic tribes practicing a ritual form of capital punishment, whereby those convicted of cowardice and other shameful vices were buried face down in mud. By the reign of Queen Margaret I of Denmark (r. 1387-1412 CE), female adultery was punished with premature burial (whilst men merely got off with a quick beheading), and until 1689 Russia employed the torturous experience as punishment for the murder of a husband.