The remains of a man executed by the breaking wheel in the 16th-18th century CE, and found in 2014 in Austria. Only a few archaeological discoveries of breaking wheel victims have been documented, since their bodies were often left exposed to environmental influences over a long period [3174×5508]
by Fuckoff555
15 Comments
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_wheel)
I wonder what were his crimes to meet such a grizzly fate. At first reading the title, i was skeptical, but seeing the broken long bones in the arms and legs, yeaaaaah those injuries are consistent with what you’d expect someone *wrapped* around the spokes of a breaking wheel to have. Yikes.
That skeleton is gnarly. Probably one of the most barbaric ways of killing someone, tied with the rats in a bucket under hot coals (the rats would have to bite their way through the person under the bucket).
It really is terrifyingly amazing to me that people can be so horrible to one another. Justice is one thing, but torture is another. Yet, we see it over and over in human history; one group being cruel to another for no reason than to be flat out evil.
When will we learn to peacefully coexist?
I’m always amazed by the ingenuity of renaissance painsmiths. Who would have thought the humble wagon wheel could be among the most horrific torture devices ever conceived?
Look how they massacred my boy!
Sincerely
Skeletor 💜
The thin veneer of society gives us false hope that these days are over.
I was introduced to this barbaric custom when learning about Horea, Cloșca and Crișan in school. Their “crime”? Daring to demand decent living conditions for peasants. Absolutely unacceptable by Habsburg standards.
I highly recommend [*The Faithful Executioner*](https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Faithful_Executioner/IVpBugp8WUYC?hl=en) as an edited primary source to read about breaking on the wheel from the perspective of the executioner, Frantz Schmidt. It’s a gruesome book, but it gives valuable insight into the life and work of someone whose occupation existed to carry out the punitive justice of the state but existed in a liminal position in regard to social mores.
Breaking at the Wheel was a mercy compared to the Ordeal of the Boats. The ancient Assyrians knew a thing or two about torture they could have shown these Middle Age folk.
Just to be clear about what the breaking wheel torture was: you were bludgeoned to death by a wagon wheel. They would lift it and then break your body by bringing it down. Imagine being the executioner having to do that to someone. Gnarly stuff.
This makes me think of a cutscene from Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla where a Frankish character who was used to torturing and killing makes a comment indicating that nothing was worse than the Saxon invention of breaking victims on the wheel.
I hope hell is real just so the ppl responsible for things like this can face retribution for all of eternity
He stole an apple
Poor bastard