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Description
"Let me out of here!"
As punishment this woman was locked into this cage, standing in the sun with no shade to be had. Slowly the metal heats up and with the sun beating down on her she grows thirsty.
At some point she will be let out of there, maybe even get a drink before then. Will she have learned her lesson?

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In the middle ages there were many different punishments, one of them were the honor punishments, often applied for minor infractions.
The iron cage is a variant of punishment at the pillory. This was a punishment reserved for the most minor crimes, but at the same time it was considered to be the punishment that damages ones honor the most. Sometimes it was combined with corporal punishment (e.g. for petty thieves it could be combined with caning or the cutting off of an ear or the little finger).

The cage had another, even darker, use - in witch trials it would be used for the "water test". A witch would be locked in that cage and then the cage was submerged in water - should she float she was a witch and had to be burned, did she drown then she was innocent (but dead).

Gypsies and other traveling folk (e.g. goliards) were likely to end up in such a cage at some point of their lives, as the prejudices against them were high in the middle ages and they were often accused of crimes that would put them in the cage should they be convicted.

The harshness of these punishments can be traced back to the worldview of that time:
Not only were the punishments retribution and deterrence. In the early middle ages a common view was that criminals were posessed by the devil who drove them to do their crimes, and only such harsh punishments would drive the devil out of the body and save the soul of the criminal.
Later the view changed that the crime was alone the criminals' fault, but only the extermination of such evil could save the Goodness. Also God would be appeases with the harshness of the punishment and consequently he wouldn't send his own, divine punishments down on the community (plague, rats, hunger, bad harvests).

(one of my sources is here: [link] )

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Photo taken on the medieval market in Weil am Rhein

Description
"Let me out of here!"
As punishment this woman was locked into this cage, standing in the sun with no shade to be had. Slowly the metal heats up and with the sun beating down on her she grows thirsty.
At some point she will be let out of there, maybe even get a drink before then. Will she have learned her lesson?

++++

In the middle ages there were many different punishments, one of them were the honor punishments, often applied for minor infractions.
The iron cage is a variant of punishment at the pillory. This was a punishment reserved for the most minor crimes, but at the same time it was considered to be the punishment that damages ones honor the most. Sometimes it was combined with corporal punishment (e.g. for petty thieves it could be combined with caning or the cutting off of an ear or the little finger).

The cage had another, even darker, use - in witch trials it would be used for the "water test". A witch would be locked in that cage and then the cage was submerged in water - should she float she was a witch and had to be burned, did she drown then she was innocent (but dead).

Gypsies and other traveling folk (e.g. goliards) were likely to end up in such a cage at some point of their lives, as the prejudices against them were high in the middle ages and they were often accused of crimes that would put them in the cage should they be convicted.

The harshness of these punishments can be traced back to the worldview of that time:
Not only were the punishments retribution and deterrence. In the early middle ages a common view was that criminals were posessed by the devil who drove them to do their crimes, and only such harsh punishments would drive the devil out of the body and save the soul of the criminal.
Later the view changed that the crime was alone the criminals' fault, but only the extermination of such evil could save the Goodness. Also God would be appeases with the harshness of the punishment and consequently he wouldn't send his own, divine punishments down on the community (plague, rats, hunger, bad harvests).

(one of my sources is here: [link] )

++++

Photo taken on the medieval market in Weil am Rhein