to death, that is. Back in the day, when stoning to death was a popular passtime, how exactly was it done? How long would it take someone to die from being stoned to death? What was the likely cause of death? Could anyobdy just turn up at the stoning a chuck a rock at the poor guy? Were slingshots permitted?Any stoners out there know?
mm
I used to take part, but since I moved to a glass house, I stopped.
I’m pretty sure that everyone would just grab a rock and toss away.
The most probable cause of death would be internal injury, or swelling of the brain.
It wouldn’t be a quick death-- it wasn’t designed to be. Depending on the size of the rocks used, it could take a while. Most likely, one would lose conciousness and then slowly bleed to death internally. (Usually, bodies of the executed would be left lying around for a while as a warning to others. A deep coma could appear to those with no medical apparati for checking vital signs as death.)
I do know of a modern stoning. Happened only a few months ago, actually. My husband was visiting a woman’s prison (he works as a deputy warden in a men’s prison and was consulting on security issues.) A woman who had killed her child was being brought into the prison yard for the first time. She was met with a hail of stones from the other women inmates, who fully intended to kill her. They actually had to send in a rescue team with shields to pull her out of there.
I’m sure the stoning scene in “The Life of Brian” is historically accurate.
It was dependent on how bad you pissed people off…the new testament has two specific stoning events…one is stephen in Acts (about ch. 9, I think), the other is paul, later in the same book. The bible says the crowds were mad (riots and mayhem mad, or insane mad) and buried the apostles under piles of rock. I don’t know how mad that is, I do know that asking the local pastor to starting reading the bible from his pulpit gets him pretty mad, though.
Just say no.
I agree with Spiff and trust LOB for historical accuracy.
Stoner: Well you did say "Jehovah. "
For accuracy one should start with the reasons why you would get stoned, and when it was appropriate to stone others:
When to stone your whole family.
When to stone your children.
When to stone unfaithful fiance’s. (with bonus rules for victims to marry their rapists).
When to stone non-virgins.
-Tcat
Stoning is an interesting method of execution; the entire community participates, so that no one person carries the burden of actually being the executioner.
There were specific “rules” for stoning. Often, children were allowed to throw the first and smallest stones; adults would throw larger ones. Big rocks and really huge stones were specifically not allowed: although the intent was not really to torture, stoning was also not intended to be a quick or painless death, either.
The cause of death was not usually internal injury from impacts, but suffocation from the piles of stones accumulated on the victim. And the bodies were not generally removed but allowed to remain on the execution site under the cairn formed by the thrown stones. I think it was Charles Panati, in Panati’s Extraordinary Endings of Practically Everything and Everybody who noted that the execution ground outside the walls of a town was easily noted by the piles of stones here and there (been a while since I’ve read the book - hope I’m getting that cite correct.)
Um…as for the “accuracy” of Life of Brian…yeah. A comedy by Monty Python is going to be a cite for historical information? I’m sure Roman soldiers gave Latin grammar lessons to grafitti artists and had them paint “Romans Go Home” all over the center of town as punishment, too.
Ah, sorry, wrong thread. 
If you do some online searches, you can find descriptions of how judicial stonings are carried out today. I’m not going to link to them, though. It’s really a pretty nasty way to die.
Not as bad a CRUCIFIXION though. It’s a slow, 'orrible, death.
Crucifixion is a slow, horrible death. It’s faster if you break the legs first, though. However, as far as I know, crucifixion isn’t used anymore as a method of capital punishment, while stoning is.
There is a color video of an Islamic stoning available on various websites. Google will turn it up.
In Jewish Law, the process of execution by stoning was as follows:
First, they’d lead the condemned to a tower at least twice the condemned’s height and one of the witnesses to the capital crime pushes him (or her) off it. (the mountain doesn’t need to be thrown at Mohammed, Mohammed can be thrown at the mountain)
If the condemned doesn’t die from the fall, the second witness takes a large rock and drops it on the condemned’s heart.
If that doesn’t kill him, the entire congregation then throws stones at him until he dies, and I imagine the scene would then have been somewhat similar to the “Life Of Brian”, excepting the whole “Jeho…” (I don’t want anyone to stone me) joke.
This is a pretty accurate description of a modern stoning in Iran:
In keeping with the two click rule, a google search with a link to the page with the video file can be found here. Not for the weak of stomach, and not work safe. The site is anti-Isamic.
I watched a movie about the killing of witches, and the townspeople were lined up with large cobblestones. One after another, they lay the stones on top of the victim, who was tied down. The eventual death was due to the slow crushing of the entire body. No one was throwing anything. Called stoning? Or something else?
Pressing.
The most famous person to die by pressing was probably Giles Corey, who was accused of witchcraft at Salem. He refused to answer the charge, so they pressed him to try to get him to plead either guilty or not guilty. The pressing killed him.
No currently known means of administration exists to induce a comparable level of THC in a human system, but research is continuing at a rapid pace.