During archaeological work in Poland, the remains of a female ‘vampire’ were unearthed. Her bones were found pinned to the ground with a sickle across her throat and a padlock around her toe to prevent her from returning to stalk among the living…
Archaeologists make a gruesome discovery that tells a terrifying tale
During an archaeological dig, Professor Dariusz Poliński and a team of researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, made an unsettling find in the village of Pień, Poland, the New York Post reported.
The archaeological work unearthed human remains in a 17th-century graveyard. That wasn’t exactly surprising, but the archaeologists were stunned when they unearthed the remains of a particular female skeleton. The artifacts they found along with the bones spoke volumes and told a terrifying tale.
Burial restraints used to prevent ‘vampire’ from returning from the dead
The first thing the archaeologists noted as they shifted away dirt from around the female skeleton–which displayed a mouth of perfectly normal teeth, by the way–was a sickle over the shoulders. It was fixed in the dirt, pinning the skeleton to the ground.
Another artifact found with the remains was a silk cap, an indication of high social status. However, even her status could not keep her from a truly gruesome burial.
This method of burial told the researchers something crucial: Whoever buried this body believed the person was a ‘vampire.’
In Eastern Europe, records of myths about vampires date back as far as the 11 century. Tales told of the undead clawing their way back up to the surface, returning as blood-sucking vampires to feed off the living as a way of preserving their immortality.
Other burial sites have been found in the region where stakes or metal rods have been hammered through the skull of the deceased person as a way of ensuring the dead stay dead.
Keeping the “undead” buried
A sickle was a very popular farming tool before the advent of machinery. It has a sharp, curved blade and comes in a variety of sizes. When a sickle blade is mounted on a long handle instead, it’s called a scythe–you know, the thing carried by the Grim Reaper. The sickle the archaeologists found had a curved blade large enough to hold a body down.
In the 1600s, superstitious Poles would use such restraints on an alleged vampire in the belief that it would prevent the deceased person from rising from the dead.
“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,” Team leader Poliński told the Daily Mail.
The researchers also found a padlock around the skeleton’s left big toe.
“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,” Poliński said.
Poliński added that the padlock on the big toe of the left foot likely symbolized “the closing of the stage and the impossibility of returning.”
