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If it's an execution why hang and decapitate? Also, why the careful removal of the head from the body? Executed folks don't tend to get treated carefully, where
by sgt101 3y ago
If it's an execution why hang and decapitate? Also, why the careful removal of the head from the body? Executed folks don't tend to get treated carefully, whereas sacrifice and ritual needs to be done just right - or how can you expect it to work? In particular if it doesn't work (when?) then who is going to get the blame - best do it really carefully !
- bonton89 3y agoMaybe they thought he was a vampire.
- retrac 3y ago> Also, why the careful removal of the head from the body? Both public display of an executed person, and mutilation of the corpse, have a history in several cultures. For example, in the case of the Ancient Egyptians, integrity of the body was important even after death. Destroying the remains of a person was highly symbolic, a kind of erasing them in the afterlife as well. Much more recently, the early modern English often performed executions in public, with disfigurement either during or after the execution. In the most important cases - traitors and such - they carefully removed the heads, gave them a preservative treatment, and put them on a spike for public display. They actually dug up Oliver Cromwell after he had been buried, just so they could mutilate his corpse. The early modern Chinese also did things like that. Probably other cultures too. I guess my point is that a great deal of care might have gone into the spectacle of a public execution.
- butlike 3y agoIf you chop the head, there's no way to identify the body, so when you loot it, you can just say it was a random passerby who was already dead, instead of getting the tribe the person belonged to to attack you. Hang to kill. Chop the head off to get the body down, toss the head, loot the body. That's my guess.
- sgt101 3y agothey didn't chop the head though - they carefully removed it with a thin knife.