Odd, but I recall reading somewhere that the usual form of execution in Persia was hanging. Not the modern measured drop, but simply putting a rope round somebodys' neck , hoisting them up and leaving them to strangle. I also read that if the crime was treason, the victims' eyes would be put out and their nose cut off first.

Scaphism, it seems, belongs in the same category as the Norse 'Bloody Eagle'. A form of execution occasionally written about but never actually practised. Unlike the old English punishment of being hanged, drawn and quartered.