Archaeologists discovered a female corpse in a 17th-century cemetery in the southeastern village of Pien, Poland, buried in a manner once believed to prevent her from rising out of the ground as a “vampire.”
Experts found a sickle around the corpse’s neck and a padlock on her left foot meant to secure her in the ground, Metro reported. The corpse also had a protruding front tooth and a silk cap on her head, which indicated her high social status.
Many people during the post-medieval period in Eastern Europe believed the dead would rise from the ground and emerge as blood-sucking supernatural beings, notably zombies and vampires. They therefore buried corpses in unusual manners to protect against their supposed return from the dead and to quell any vampire hysteria, the outlet noted.
“The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured,” Professor Dariusz Poliński from the Nicholas Copernicus University said. “Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone.”
The extraordinary remains of a supposed ‘vampire’ have been uncovered at an archaeological site in Poland 🦇
Experts found the female body with a sickle across its throat, pinning it to the ground.
Let’s find out more 👇https://t.co/jv1Kij9a6U
— Metro (@MetroUK) September 5, 2022
Many who lived during time periods as far back as the 11th century likely accredited the spread of fatal diseases, such as cholera, to vampires and supernatural beings, Metro noted. (RELATED: Real-Life Vampire Scare Kills At Least Eight)
In 2014, archaeologists found six skeletons buried in a similar fashion in Drawsko, Poland, in a 400-year-old cemetery, the outlet reported. Sickles were found pressed against the necks of an adult man and woman.
That same year, archeologists discovered a corpse in Bulgaria with an iron stake impaled through his chest, apparently to prevent him from “rising from the dead and disturbing the living,” Smithsonian Magazine reported. His left leg had been removed and placed next to his body. Archaeologist Nikolai Ovcharov said those who died from unusual or unexpected causes, such as suicide, were staked in order to prevent them from returning as vampires.
Vampire hysteria commonly took place in Slavic villages and among the Romani people, according to Smithsonian Magazine. Archaeologists reportedly uncovered over 100 remains pinned to the ground or staked in the Eastern European region as of the magazine article’s publication in 2014.