Execution By Elephant - Geographical Scope

Geographical Scope

Crushing by elephant has been done in many parts of the world, by both Western and Eastern empires. The earliest records of such executions date back to the classical period. However, the practice was already well established by that time and continued well into the 19th century.

Although African elephants are significantly bigger than Asian Elephants, African powers did not make nearly as much use of the animals in warfare or ceremonial affairs, given that the African elephant is much less easily tamed than its Asian counterpart. Some ancient powers in Africa did make use of elephants, but they employed the now-extinct North African subspecies Loxodonta (africana) pharaoensis (see the article on war elephants for an overview). The use of tamed elephants was thus largely confined to the parts of the world inhabited (or formerly inhabited) by Asian elephants.