Instruments of Torture

My dark side has been looking forward to this fascinating exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Man. When I knew I was coming to San Diego I did some research to determine how I wanted to spend my time and this was at the top of the list. The San Diego Museum of Man is located at Balboa Park, which is a lovely area that has about 15 Museums and the San Diego Zoo. It was only a 5 minute cab ride from the hotel, or a 3 mile walk. I  went to the San Diego Museum of Art as well.

I arrived right when the museum opened and headed to the Instruments of Torture exhibit. It is a traveling exhibit from The Medieval Torture Museum in San Gimignano, Italy. I was not able to take pictures, but here is a link to a website where you can take a look at some of the devices http://www.corkscrew-balloon.com/misc/torture/ There were many torture devices and each included a description of how and why it was used, as well as drawings of what the "event" looked like. There were torture devices to remove any appendage you can imagine and many were gender specific. There were devices which would cause unimaginable pain, those which would provide a quick death, or those which would provide a slow death. I thought the "worst" device was a large cage. A person would be put in the cage, and the cage would be hung, usually at a crossroads in the town, and they would stay in the cage until they were completely deteriorated to only bones; what a slow and painful death. At the other extreme, I thought the guillotine would have been the "best" option.

As you can imagine, the exhibit was thought provoking as well as emotionally draining, and you had to ask yourself if people are the real instruments of torture.