What were some of the cruelest methods of executions used by ancient civilizations?

In ancient China the most horrible death an emperor/government official can assign is the 1000 blade execution. This was done over the course of 3 days. Each day executioner carves off pieces of victim's flesh and the victim must not die until the 1000th carve on the 3rd day in order to complete the execution.

Also in Han China,  a widows queen was so jealous of her dead husband's concubine that she ordered people to chop off all of the concubine's limbs, carved out her eyes, made her deaf by pouring poison and also cut of her tongue. Then the queen stuck the still-alive concubine in a large jar and made everyone look. Apparently it was so sickening that the Queen's son was horrified by it and died because of it later on. This torture was so famous that the Chinese made a new character to describe what was done to the concubine.

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