SCAPHISM

 

The body of victim's is left to float on a stagnant pond

Scaphism is an Ancient Persian method of execution. According to Wikipedia, a naked person would be firmly fastened within a back-to-back pair of narrow rowboats (or in some variations a hollowed out tree trunk), the head, hands, and feet protruding from this improvised container. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body so as to attract insects to the exposed appendages. They would then be left to float on a stagnant pond (or alternately, simply exposed to the sun somewhere). The defenseless individual’s feces accumulated within the container, attracting more insects, which would eat and breed within his or her exposed (and increasingly gangrenous) flesh. 

The force feeding would be repeated every day so that the hopeless man couldn’t even look forward to death by starvation and dehydration. The honey and milk would give him more than enough nutrients to survive and live through the ordeal.

Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock.