Random Historical Immurement: People Who Were Bricked Up Or Buried Alive (11 items)

• 

  (#5) Bodies Trapped In A Wall For Entertainment Purposes

  Jazzar Pasha was a notorious 18th-century governor of Lebanon and Palestine. He was known for committing unspeakable cruelties to anyone who angered him.

  At some point during his rule, he decided to build a new wall around the city of Beirut. And not just any wall - he wanted a structure that was strong, decorative, and entertaining. To that end, he captured a great many Greek Christians and had them essentially built into the wall.

   
• 

  (#2) The Perfect Punishment For Lustful Vestal Virgins

  Ancient Roman religion was taken seriously by its leaders, practitioners, and even the secular government. As with most societies, there was also an ongoing concern over the chastity of women and how a woman's natural lust was overwhelming and thus, had to be controlled. Vestal Virgins, or female temple priestesses of the goddess Vesta, were held to a particularly high standard of conduct. All took a solemn vow of chastity.

  However, the priestesses were human and sometimes faltered. This was not a problem unless their lustful activities were discovered. On such occasions, a guilty priestess received capital punishment. This most often took the form of permanent immurement.

  The Vestal Virgin would be stripped, beaten, dressed in the clothing of a corpse, and then placed in a catacomb or cave. Typically, she would be locked or bricked away with a small supply of food, water, and candles or lamps. When the supplies ran out, the Vestal Virgin would die a slow agonizing death. 
• 

  (#10) Infants Were Abandoned And Immured

  In some cases, immurement was the cause of death for infants. Bricking up or enclosing a wall or entrance wasn't even necessary since little babies are unable to attempt escape. But why would anyone immure a newborn? Some answers include: poverty, fear, and shame.  

  Very poor families could not afford another mouth to feed, so infants were left wherever they would not be found. In ancient Rome, for example, it was not terribly frowned upon to kill babies as a form of birth control, since they were not considered to be completely human. Other infants might be killed because their mothers - sex workers or victims of rape - were ashamed of them. 

  Whatever the reason, babies were abandoned in catacombs, cloisters, cisterns, and cells. They were left to die, their only crime: existence. 
• 

  (#11) Young Maidens Were Lowered Into Cisterns As A Human Sacrifice

  The Festival of the Sun is the most important religious celebration in Ancient Inca culture. It was a major event during ancient times that lasted for nine days and was filled with colorful dances and processions as well as animal sacrifices to thank the gods for a good harvest. Music was played and the people shared food.

  Following the arrival of the Catholic Spaniards in the 16th century, the festival was banned for many years. While the Spaniards were determined to convert the Inca people to Catholicism by whatever means necessary, perhaps one of their reasons for banning the festival was the tradition of human sacrifice by immurement. After performing certain ceremonial duties, a number of young maidens, around 12 years of age, were lowered into a waterless cistern and sealed within it. 
• 

  (#8) People Were Immured Into Building Foundations As A Good Luck Charm

  When you've created something you're proud of, you want to make sure it has the good luck to last forever. Such was the thinking of those who immured people - including children - in the foundations of a building. Especially under the cornerstone. It was a good luck charm sort of thing.

  There was a Serbian tradition where a building project may not progress until the wife of one of the owners of the new building was immured into the foundation. The Magyars tell a similar tale of the building of the city of Deva, in which the compassion of the landowning spirit was derived by sacrificing the wife of one of the men who built the structure. 

   
• 

  (#4) Clerics Who Molested Boys Were Starved To Death In A Suspended Coffin

  In 1409, four Christian clerics in Augsburg, Bavaria, were found guilty of pederasty, or sexual conduct with young boys. Pederasty was not only considered immoral but also illegal. 

  The church in Augsburg locked the guilty men into wooden coffins, suspended them with ropes from high inside a tower, and left them to starve. They were then buried under the gallows.

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking