Editing Flaying (section)

=== Assyrian tradition ===
[[File:Flaying of rebels.jpg|thumb|250px|[[Assyria]]ns flaying their prisoners alive]]
Ernst G. Jung, in his ''Kleine Kulturgeschichte der Haut'' ("A short cultural history of the skin"), provides an essay in which he outlines the [[Neo-Assyrian]] tradition of flaying human beings.<ref>Paragraph based on the essay "''Von Ursprung des Schindens in Assyrien''" in ''Jung'' (2007), [https://books.google.com/books?id=LAnRRHPMmlcC&pg=PA67 p.67-70]</ref> Already from the times of [[Ashurnasirpal II]] (r. 883–859 BC), the practice is displayed and commemorated in both carvings and official royal edicts. The carvings show that the actual flaying process might begin at various places on the body, such as at the [[Crus (lower leg)|crus]] (lower leg), the thighs, or the buttocks.
[[File:Shield showing three flaying knives, symbol of St. Bartholomew.jpg|left|170px|thumb|Shield showing three flaying knives, symbol of [[Bartholomew the Apostle]]]]
In their royal edicts, the Neo-Assyrian kings seem to gloat over the terrible fate they imposed upon their captives, and that flaying seems, in particular, to be the fate meted out to rebel leaders. Jung provides some examples of this triumphant rhetoric. From Ashurnasirpal II:{{quote|I have made a pillar facing the city gate, and have flayed all the rebel leaders; I have clad the pillar in the flayed skins. I let the leaders of the conquered cities be flayed, and clad the city walls with their skins. The captives I have killed by the sword and flung on the dung heap.{{Citation needed |reason=source not clear |date=November 2016}}}}

The [[Rassam cylinder]] in the [[British Museum]] describes this: {{quote|Their corpses they hung on stakes, they took off their skins and covered the city wall with them.<ref>{{cite web |title=cylinder 91026 |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_Rm-1 |website=The British Museum |language=en}} Col.1, L.52 to Col.2, L. 27</ref>{{bsn|date=March 2023|reason=Non-primary source needed, I doubt the British Museum will let average editor in to verify the details}} }}