[Titanscape (OP)]

I was thinking about the Roman's method of punishment. A 5 mm diameter nail would tear a hand. But a nail with a flat washer, 2 mm thick, 5 cm long, and 2 cm wide, if hard pressed against the palm, lined length wise along the knuckles of the palm, could catch the knuckles and hold the weight of the body, even after it is limp.

What do you think? After all the Romans were about as advanced as we were in 1850.

[RD]

I think the crucified were tied to the cross. There is some evidence for nails through heels ...

The BBC production team based their imagery of the Crucifixion on the discovery in 1968 by a team of archaeologists led by Vassilios Tzaferis, of the remains of a crucified man in cave-tombs at Giv'at ha-Mivtar, north of Jerusalem.

Jehohonan, as he was called, had died around AD 7, and so was a close contemporary of Jesus, and his crucifixion was likely to have been carried out in a similar way.

The key bit of evidence was a heel bone with a curved nail stuck through it.

The nail was driven through the heel bones from the side, indicating to some that Jehohanan had been crucified in 'a sort of sidesaddle position'.

Other experts, however, suggest that the length of the nail is too short for this and establishes that each heel must have been nailed separately to the sides of the cross.

The hand bones had no damage to suggest that nails had been driven through the palms, and the researchers thought, based on literary evidence, that it was possible that the crucified person's upper limbs might have been fastened to the cross with rope rather than nails.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thepassion/articles/crucifixion.shtml


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http://phdiva.blogspot.com/2006/04/archaeology-of-roman-crucifixion.html