Immurement
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Immurement, also called immuration or live entombment, is a form of imprisonment, usually until death, in which someone is placed within an enclosed space without exits. This includes instances where people have been enclosed in extremely tight confinement, such as within a coffin. When used as a means of execution, the prisoner is simply left to die from starvation or dehydration. This form of execution is distinct from being buried alive, in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation. By contrast, immurement has also occasionally been used as an early form of life imprisonment, in which cases the victims were regularly fed and given water. There have been a few cases in which people have survived for months or years after being walled up, as well as some people, such as anchorites, who have volunteered to be immured.
Re-creation of a 16th-century knight, who was believed to be entombed in a wall of Kuressaare Castle, Estonia
Ruins of Thornton Abbey
Perlachturm with St. Peter by Perlach
Immurement of a nun (fictitious depiction in an illustration from 1868)
Premature burial
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Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive.
Antoine Wiertz's painting of a man buried alive
A burial vault built c. 1890 with internal escape hatches to allow the victim of accidental premature burial to escape
Killing the Scholars and Burning the Books, anonymous 18th century Chinese painted album leaf depicts Confucian scholars being buried alive in Imperial China during the 3rd century BC
16th-century Portuguese illustration from the Códice Casanatense, depicting a Hindu ritual, in which a widow is buried alive with her dead husband