Beheadings in an illumination fromFroissart'sChronicles from the beginning of the 15th century – the execution of Guillaume Sans and his secretary inBordeaux on the orders ofThomas FeltonPerseus using the severed head ofMedusa to turn KingPolydectesto stoneDepiction of anEthiopian emperor executing people, 18th century
Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain ofoxygenated blood by way of severing thejugular vein andcommon carotid artery, while all other organs are deprived of theinvoluntary functions that are needed for the body to function.The termbeheading refers to the act of deliberately decapitating a person, either as a means of murder or as anexecution; it may be performed with anaxe,sword, orknife, or by mechanical means such as aguillotine. Anexecutioner who carries out executions by beheading is sometimes called a headsman.[1] Accidental decapitation can be the result of an explosion,[2] a car or industrial accident, improperly administered execution byhanging or other violent injury. The national laws ofSaudi Arabia andYemen[3] permit beheading. UnderSharia, which exclusively applies to Muslims, beheading is also a legal punishment inZamfara State,Nigeria.[4] In practice, Saudi Arabia is the only country that continues to behead its offenders regularly as a punishment for capital crimes. Cases of decapitation by suicidal hanging,[5]suicide by train decapitation[6][7] and by guillotine[8] are known.
Less commonly, decapitation can also refer to the removal of the head from a body that is already dead. This might be done to take the head as atrophy, as a secondary stage of an execution by hanging, forpublic display, to make the deceased more difficult to identify, forcryonics, or for other, more esoteric reasons.[9][10]
The word decapitation has its roots in the Late Latin worddecapitare. The meaning of the worddecapitare can be discerned from its morphemesde- (down, from) +capit- (head).[11] The past participle ofdecapitare isdecapitatus[12] which was used to createdecapitatio, the noun form ofdecapitatus, in Medieval Latin, whence the French worddécapitation was produced.[12]
Humans have practicedcapital punishment by beheading for millennia. TheNarmer Palette (c. 3000 BCE) shows the first known depiction of decapitated corpses. The terms "capital offence", "capital crime", "capital punishment", derive from the Latincaput, "head", referring to the punishment for serious offences involving the forfeiture of the head; i.e. death by beheading.[13]
Some cultures, such as ancient Rome and Greece, regarded decapitation as the most honorable form of death.[14] In the Middle Ages, many European nations continued to reserve the method only for nobles and royalty.[15] In France, theFrench Revolution made it the only legal method of execution for all criminals regardless of class, one of the period's many symbolic changes.[14]
Others have regarded beheading as dishonorable and contemptuous, such as the Japanese troops who beheaded prisoners during World War II.[14] In recent times, it has become associated with terrorism.[14]
If a headsman'saxe orsword is sharp and his aim is precise, decapitation is quick and thought to be a relatively painless form ofdeath. If the instrument is blunt or the executioner is clumsy, repeated strokes might be required to sever the head, resulting in a prolonged and more painful death.Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex,[16] andMary, Queen of Scots[17] required three strikes at their respective executions. The same could be said for the execution ofJohann Friedrich Struensee, favorite of the Danish queenCaroline Matilda of Great Britain.Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury, is said to have required up to 10 strokes before decapitation was achieved.[18] This particular story may, however, be apocryphal, as highly divergent accounts exist. Historian and philosopherDavid Hume, for example, relates the following about her death:[19]
She refused to lay her head on the block, or submit to a sentence where she had received no trial. She told the executioner, that if he would have her head, he must win it the best way he could: and thus, shaking her venerable grey locks, she ran about the scaffold; and the executioner followed her with his axe, aiming many fruitless blows at her neck before he was able to give the fatal stroke.
To ensure that the blow would be fatal,executioners' swords usually were blade-heavy two-handed swords. Likewise, if an axe was used, it almost invariably was wielded with both hands.
Decapitation is quickly fatal tohumans and mostanimals. Unconsciousness occurs within seconds without circulating oxygenated blood (brain ischemia).[20] Cell death and irreversiblebrain damage occur after 3–6 minutes with no oxygen, due toexcitotoxicity. Some anecdotes suggest more extended persistence of human consciousness after decapitation,[21] but most doctors consider this unlikely and consider such accounts to be misapprehensions of reflexive twitching rather than deliberate movement, since deprivation of oxygen must cause nearly immediate coma and death ("[Consciousness is] probably lost within 2–3 seconds, due to a rapid fall of intracranialperfusion of blood").[22]
A laboratory study testing for humane methods of euthanasia in awake animals used EEG monitoring to measure the time duration following decapitation for rats to become fully unconscious, unable to perceive distress and pain. It was estimated that this point was reached within 3–4 seconds, correlating closely with results found in other studies on rodents (2.7 seconds, and 3–6 seconds).[23][24][25] The same study also suggested that the massive wave which can be recorded by EEG monitoring approximately one minute after decapitation ultimately reflects brain death. Other studies indicate that electrical activity in the brain has been demonstrated to persist for 13 to 14 seconds following decapitation (although it is disputed as to whether such activity implies that pain is perceived),[26] and a 2010 study reported that decapitation of rats generated responses in EEG indices over a period of 10 seconds that have been linked tonociception across a number of different species of animals, including rats.[27]
Some animals (such ascockroaches) can survive decapitation and die not because of the loss of the head directly, but rather because ofstarvation.[28] A number of other animals, includingsnakes, andturtles, have also been known to survive for some time after being decapitated, as they have slower metabolisms and theirnervous systems can continue to function at some capacity for a limited time even after connection to the brain is lost, responding to any nearby stimulus.[29][30] In addition, the bodies ofchickens and turtles may continue to move temporarily after decapitation.[31]
Althoughhead transplantation by the reattachment of blood vessels has seen some very limited success in animals,[32] a fully functional reattachment of a severed human head (including repair of thespinal cord, muscles, and other critically important tissues) has not yet been achieved.
Early versions of the guillotine included theHalifax Gibbet, which was used inHalifax, England, from 1286 until the 17th century, and the "Maiden", employed inEdinburgh from the 16th through the 18th centuries.
The modern form of theguillotine was invented shortly before theFrench Revolution with the aim of creating a quick and painless method of execution requiring little skill on the part of the operator. Decapitation by guillotine became a common mechanically assisted form ofexecution.
The French observed a strict code of etiquette surrounding such executions. For example, a man named Legros, one of the assistants at the execution ofCharlotte Corday, was imprisoned for three months and dismissed for slapping the face of the victim after the blade had fallen in order to see whether any flicker of life remained.[33] The guillotine was used in France during the French Revolution and remained the normal judicial method in both peacetime and wartime into the 1970s, although thefiring squad was used in certain cases. France abolished the death penalty in 1981.
French anarchistAuguste Vaillant just before being guillotined in 1894
Many German states had used aguillotine-like device known as aFallbeil ("falling axe") since the 17th and 18th centuries, and decapitation by guillotine was the usual means of execution inGermany until the abolition of the death penalty inWest Germany in 1949. It was last used in communistEast Germany in 1966.
Contrary to popular myth, executions were generally not conducted face-up, and chief executionerJohann Reichhart was insistent on maintaining "professional" protocol throughout the era, having administered the death penalty during the earlierWeimar Republic. Nonetheless, it is estimated that some 16,500 persons were guillotined in Germany andAustria between 1933 and 1945, a number that includesresistance fighters both within Germany itself and incountries occupied by Nazi forces. As these resistance fighters were not part of anyregular army, they were consideredcommon criminals and were in many casestransported to Germany for execution. Decapitation was considered a "dishonorable" death, in contrast toexecution by firing squad.[citation needed]
In theDemocratic Republic of Congo, the conflict and ethnic massacre between local army andKamuina Nsapu rebels has caused several deaths and atrocities such as rape and mutilation. One of them is decapitation, both a fearsome way to intimidate victims as well as an act that may include ritualistic elements. According to a UN report from Congolese refugees, they believed theBana Mura and Kamuina Nsapu militias have "magical powers" as a result of drinking the blood of decapitated victims, making them invincible.[34]
Besides the massive decapitations (like the beheading of 40 members of the State Police), a globally notorious case happened in March 2017 to Swedish politicianZaida Catalán and American UN expert Michael Sharp, who were kidnapped and executed during a mission near the village of Ngombe inKasaï Province. The UN was reportedly horrified when video footage of the executions surfaced in April that same year, where some grisly details led to assume ritual components of the beheading: the perpetrators first cut the hair of both victims, and then one of them beheaded Catalán only, because it would "increase his power",[35] which may be linked to the fact that Congolese militias are particularly brutal in their acts of violence toward women and children.[36]
In the trial that followed investigations after the bodies were discovered, and according to a testimony of a primary school teacher from Bunkonde, near the village of Moyo Musuila where the executions took place, he witnessed a teenage militant carrying the young woman's head,[37] but despite the efforts of the investigation, the head was never found. According to a report published on 29 May 2019, the Monusco peacekeeping military mission led by Colonel Luis Mangini, in the search for the missing remains, arrived to a ritual place in Moyo Musila where "parts of bodies, hands and heads" were cut and used for rituals,[38] where they lost track of the victim's head.
Several reports of decapitation, along with other types of mutilation of Armenian POWs by Azerbaijani soldiers, emerged in 2020 during theSecond Nagorno-Karabakh War.[42]
Ranked beheaded bodies on the ground, inCaishikou,Beijing, China, 1905
In traditionalChina, decapitation was considered a more severe form of punishment thanstrangulation, although strangulation caused more prolonged suffering. This was because inConfucian tradition, a person's body was a gift from their parents, and so it was therefore disrespectful to their ancestors to return their bodies to the grave dismembered. The Chinese, however, had other punishments, such as dismembering the body into multiple pieces (similar to the Englishquartering). In addition, there was also a practice ofcutting the body at the waist, which was a common method of execution before being abolished in the earlyQing dynasty due to the lingering death it caused. In some tales, people did not die immediately after decapitation.[43][44][45][46]
The British officerJohn Masters recorded in his autobiography thatPathans in British India during theAnglo-Afghan Wars would behead enemy soldiers who were captured, such as British and Sikh soldiers.[47][48][49][50]
TheExecution of Sambhaji was a significant event in 17th-centuryDeccan India, where the secondMaratha King was put to death by order of theMughal emperorAurangzeb. The conflicts between theMughals and theDeccan Sultanates, which resulted in the downfall of the Sultanates, paved the way for tensions between the Marathas and the Mughals. Aurangzeb was drawn to Southern India due to the vanquished rebelAkbar fleeing to the Maratha monarch,Sambhaji. The Maratha King was then captured by the Mughal generalMuqarrab Khan. Sambhaji and his ministerKavi Kalash were then taken toTulapur, where they were tortured to death.
Japanese illustration depicting the beheading of Chinese captives.First Sino-Japanese WarSgt.Leonard Siffleet, an AustralianPOW captured in New Guinea, about to be beheaded by a Japanese soldier with ashin guntō sword, 1943
InJapan, decapitation was a common punishment, sometimes for minor offences.Samurai were often allowed to decapitate soldiers who had fled from battle, as it was considered cowardly. Decapitation was historically performed as the second step inseppuku (ritualsuicide bydisembowelment). After the victim had sliced his ownabdomen open, another warrior would strike his head off from behind with akatana to hasten death and to reduce the suffering. The blow was expected to be precise enough to leave intact a small strip of skin at the front of the neck—to spare invited and honored guests the indelicacy of witnessing a severed head rolling about, or towards them; such an occurrence would have been considered inelegant and in bad taste. The sword was expected to be used upon the slightest sign that the practitioner might yield to pain and cry out—avoiding dishonor to him and to all partaking in the privilege of observing an honorable demise. As skill was involved, only the most trusted warrior was honored by taking part. In the lateSengoku period, decapitation was performed as soon as the person chosen to carry out seppuku had made the slightest wound to his abdomen.
Decapitation (without seppuku) was also considered a very severe and degrading form of punishment. One of the most brutal decapitations was that ofSugitani Zenjubō [ja] (杉谷善住坊), who attempted to assassinateOda Nobunaga, a prominentdaimyō, in 1570.[disputed –discuss] After being caught, Zenjubō was buried alive in the ground with only his head out, and the head was slowly sawn off with a bamboo saw by passers-by for several days (punishment by sawing;nokogiribiki [ja] (鋸挽き).[51] These unusual punishments were abolished in the earlyMeiji era. A similar scene is described in the last page of James Clavell's bookShōgun[dubious –discuss].
Historically, decapitation had been the most common method of execution in Korea, until it was replaced byhanging in 1896. Professional executioners were calledmangnani (망나니) and they were volunteered from death rows.[citation needed]
Execution by beheading was one of the most common forms of execution in Vietnam under the feudal system. This form of execution still existed in theSouth Vietnam regime until 1962.
During thewar in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–1995) there were a number of ritual beheadings of Serbs and Croats who were taken as prisoners of war bymujahideen members of theBosnian Army. At least one case is documented and proven in court by theICTY where mujahedin, members of 3rd Corps of Army BiH, beheadedBosnian Serb Dragan Popović.[52][53]
TheCelts of western Europe long pursued a"cult of the severed head", as evidenced by both Classical literary descriptions and archaeological contexts.[60] This cult played a central role in their temples and religious practices and earned them a reputation ashead hunters among the Mediterranean peoples.Diodorus Siculus, in his 1st-centuryHistorical Library (5.29.4) wrote the following about Celtic head-hunting:
They cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach them to the necks of their horses. The blood-stained spoils they hand over to their attendants and striking up a paean and singing a song of victory; and they nail up these first fruits upon their houses, just as do those who lay low wild animals in certain kinds of hunting. They embalm incedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest, and display them with pride to strangers, saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself, refused the offer of a large sum of money. They say that some of them boast that they refused the weight of the head in gold.
Both the Greeks and Romans found the Celtic decapitation practices shocking and the latter put an end to them when Celtic regions came under their control.
According toPaul Jacobsthal, "Amongst the Celts thehuman head was venerated above all else, since the head was to the Celt the soul, centre of the emotions as well as of life itself, a symbol of divinity and of the powers of the other-world."[61] Arguments for a Celtic cult of the severed head include the many sculptured representations of severed heads in La Tène carvings, and the surviving Celtic mythology, which is full of stories of the severed heads of heroes and the saints whocarry their own severed heads, right down toSir Gawain and the Green Knight, where theGreen Knight picks up his own severed head after Gawain has struck it off in abeheading game, just asSaint Denis carried his head to the top ofMontmartre.[62][63]
A further example of this regeneration after beheading lies in the tales ofConnemara'sSaint Féchín, who after being beheaded byVikings carried his head to the Holy Well onOmey Island and on dipping it into the well placed it back upon his neck and was restored to full health.[64]
Pothinus matchedMark Antony in crime: They slew the noblest Romans of their time. The helpless victims they decapitated, An act of infamy with shame related. One head wasPompey's, who broughttriumphs home, The otherCicero's, the voice of Rome.
The ancient Greeks and Romans regarded decapitation as a comparatively honorable form of execution for criminals. The traditional procedure, however, included first being tied to a stake and whipped with rods. Axes were used by the Romans, and later swords, which were considered a more honorable instrument of death. Those who could verify that they were Roman citizens were to be beheaded, rather than undergoingcrucifixion. In theRoman Republic of the early 1st century BC, it became the tradition for the severed heads of public enemies—such as the political opponents ofMarius andSulla—to be publicly displayed on theRostra in theForum Romanum after execution. Perhaps the most famous beheading was that ofCicero who, on instructions fromMark Antony, had his hands (which had penned thePhilippicae against Antony) and his head cut off and nailed up for display in this manner.
Archaeological evidence of Roman-period executions by decapitation has also been found in the provinces. InIsrael, seven cases of decapitation have been discovered, all dating to the Roman period and involving Jewish individuals.[65] An additional case, uncovered inJerusalem, appears to date from the early 1st century BCE and may be linked to theJudean Civil War during the reign ofAlexander Jannaeus.[65]
In France, until theabolition of capital punishment in 1981, the main method of execution had been by beheading by means of theguillotine. Other than a small number of military cases in which a firing squad was used (including that ofJean Bastien-Thiry), the guillotine was the only legal method of execution from 1791, when it was introduced by theLegislative Assembly during the last days of the kingdomFrench Revolution, until 1981. Before the revolution, beheading had typically been reserved for noblemen and carried out manually. In 1981, PresidentFrançois Mitterrand abolished capital punishment and issued commutations for those whose sentences had not been carried out.
InNordic countries, decapitation was the usual means of carrying out capital punishment. Noblemen were beheaded with asword, and commoners with anaxe. The last executions by decapitation inFinland in 1825,Norway in 1876,Faroe Islands in 1609, and inIceland in 1830 were carried out with axes. The same was the case inDenmark in 1892.Sweden continued the practice for a few decades, executing its second to last criminal—mass murdererJohan Filip Nordlund—by axe in 1900. It was replaced by the guillotine, which was used for the first and only time onJohan Alfred Ander in 1910.
Finland's official beheading axe resides today at the Museum of Crime inVantaa. It is a broad-bladed two-handed axe. It was last used when murdererTahvo Putkonen was executed in 1825, the last execution in peacetime in Finland.[68]
The beheading of the 15th Century Castilian Royal favorite, DonÁlvaro de Luna. Painting by José María Rodríguez de Losada (1826–1896).
In Spain executions were carried out by various methods including strangulation by thegarrotte. In the 16th and 17th centuries, noblemen were sometimes executed by means of beheading. Examples includeAnthony van Stralen, Lord of Merksem,Lamoral, Count of Egmont andPhilip de Montmorency, Count of Horn. They were tied to a chair on a scaffold. The executioner used a knife to cut the head from the body. It was considered to be a more honourable death if the executioner started with cutting the throat.[69]
Assyrian military campaign in southern Mesopotamia, beheaded enemies, 7th century BC, from Nineveh, Iraq. The British Museum.
Though not officially sanctioned, legal beheadings were carried out against at least 50 prostitutes and pimps underSaddam Hussein as late as 2000.[72]
Beheadings have emerged as anotherterror tactic especially in Iraq since 2003.[73] Civilians have borne the brunt of the beheadings, although U.S. and Iraqi military personnel have also been targeted. After kidnapping the victim, the kidnappers typically make some sort of demand of the government of the hostage's nation and give a time limit for the demand to be carried out, often 72 hours. Beheading is often threatened if the government fails to heed the wishes of the hostage takers. Sometimes, thebeheadings are videotaped and made available on the Internet. One of the most publicized of such executions was that ofNick Berg.[74]
Judicial execution is practiced in Iraq, but is generally carried out byhanging.
Saudi Arabia has a criminal justice system based onShari'ah law reflecting a particular state-sanctioned interpretation of Islam. Crimes such as rape, murder, apostasy, and sorcery[75] are punishable by beheading.[76] It is usually carried outpublicly by beheading with a sword.
A public beheading will typically take place around 9am. The convicted person is walked into the square and kneels in front of the executioner. The executioner uses a sword to remove the condemned person's head from their body at the neck with a single strike.[77] After the convicted person is pronounced dead, a police official announces the crimes committed by the beheaded alleged criminal and the process is complete. The official might announce the same before the actual execution. This is the most common method of execution in Saudi Arabia.[78]
According toAmnesty International, at least 79 people were executed in Saudi Arabia in 2013.[79] Foreigners are not exempt, accounting for "almost half" of executions in 2013.[79]
In 2015Ashraf Fayadh (born 1980), a Saudi Arabian poet, was sentenced to be beheaded, but his sentence was later reduced to eight years in prison and 800 lashes, forapostasy.
The Syrian government employs hanging asits method of capital punishment. However, the terrorist organisation known as theIslamic State, which controlled territory in much of eastern Syria, had regularly carried out beheadings of people.[80] Syrian rebels attempting to overthrow the Syrian government have been implicated in beheadings too.[81][82][83]
The United States government has never employed beheading as a legal method of execution. However, beheading has sometimes been used in mutilations of the dead, particularly during the time of slavery, such asNat Turner, who led a rebellion against slavery. When caught, he was publicly hanged, flayed, and beheaded. This was a technique used by many enslavers to discourage the "frequent bloody uprisings" that were carried out by "kidnapped Africans". While bodily dismemberment of various kinds was employed to instill terror, Dr. Erasmus D. Fenner noted postmortem decapitation was particularly effective.[91]
During theVietnam War, as a terror tactic, "some American troops hacked the heads off... dead [Vietnamese] and mounted them on pikes or poles".[92] Correspondent Michael Herr noted "thousands" of photo-albums made by US soldiers "all seemed to contain the same pictures": "the severed head shot, the head often resting on the chest of the dead man or being held up by a smiling Marine, or a lot of the heads, arranged in a row, with a burning cigarette in each of the mouths, the eyes open". Some of the victims were "very young".[93]
GeneralGeorge Patton IV, son of the famous WWII generalGeorge S. Patton, was known for keeping "macabre souvenirs", such as "a Vietnamese skull that sat on his desk." Other Americans "hacked the heads off Vietnamese to keep, trade, or exchange for prizes offered by commanders."[94]
Although theUtah Territory permitted a person sentenced to death to choose beheading as a means of execution, no person chose that option, and it was dropped whenUtah became a state.[95]
In July 2025,Florida enacted legislation that further expands the state's already extensive capital punishment laws to allow "any execution method not explicitly deemed unconstitutional," which includes beheading. This makes the United States the only country outside of the Islamic world that currently allows executions via beheading.[96][97]
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^Wilhelm, James J. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The Romance of Arthur. Ed. Wilhelm, James J. New York: Garland Publishing, 1994. 399–465.
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^abLieberman, Tehillah; Arbiv, Kfir; Nagar, Yossi (2 January 2020). "The Wrath of the Lion: Evidence of a Mass-Burial in Hasmonean Jerusalem".Tel Aviv.47 (1):97–98.doi:10.1080/03344355.2020.1707448.ISSN0334-4355.
^Execution of the Marquess of Ayamonte on the 11th. of December 1645 Described in "Varios relatos diversos de Cartas de Jesuitas" (1634–1648) Coll. Austral Buones Aires 1953 enDr. J. Geers "Van het Barokke leven", Baarn 1957 Bl. 183–188.
^"Saddam halshögg 50 prostituerade" [Saddam beheaded 50 prostitutes] (in Swedish). 11 December 2000.Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved25 February 2017.
^Grayson, George W. (2012).The Executioner's Men: Los Zetas, Rogue Soldiers, Criminal Entrepreneurs, and the Shadow State They Created (1st ed.), p. 46, Transaction Publishers.ISBN978-1-4128-4617-2
^Washington, Harriet A. (2006).Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. New York. London. Toronto. Sydney. Austin.: Doubleday. p. 126, paragraph 3.
^Turse, Nick (2013).Kill Anything that Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam. New York: Metropolitan Books. p. 163.
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