Last year archaeologists discovered a distressing grave of a female vampire in Poland. Now they have uncovered another child vampire’s grave close to the previous one. The child was found buried face down with an anti-vampire padlock. These discoveries give an insight into a dark period in Eastern Europe when many people were stricken with ‘vampire hysteria’.
A team of archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University in the city of Torun are excavating at a 17th-century cemetery at the village of Pien in south-eastern Poland. The team has successfully unearthed graves with intriguing anti-vampire measures placed on the corpses.
This is not the first time archaeologists and researchers have found such graves in Eastern Europe. In 2015, archaeologists discovered several graves with skeletons pinned to the ground in the Polish village of Drawsko. The corpses also had other anti-vampire protections such as stones on the throat and sickles over their neck or waist.
Grave of a child vampire
In late July, archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University found the grave of a child vampire in the village of Pien. The grave contained the remains of a child buried face down with a triangular padlock around its foot. Archaeologists estimate the age of the child between five to seven years at the time of the death.
The padlock is believed to be a protective anti-vampire device. Studies show people from the late 17th century and early 18th century believed in anti-vampire burial measures such as the padlock, which prevented the dead from resurrecting. According to the team leader, Professor Dariusz Poliski’s report, “The padlock under the foot symbolises the closing of a stage of life and is meant to protect against the return of the deceased, which was probably feared. Such practices originated in folk beliefs and are sometimes described as anti-vampiric.”
Another curious anti-vampire measure explained by Prof. Poliski, is the burial of the child face down. Burying the deceased face-down made sure that they would ‘bite into the ground and not harm the living’ and ensured they did not ‘pose a threat to living people’.
Wion news reported that the child’s grave was found near a cluster of five children’s graves. One of whom had a green-coloured jaw fragment. Researchers suggest the greenish hue is caused by the potion concocted to cure ‘vampirism’. Chemical tests have determined traces of gold, potassium permanganate, and copper in the potion. A similar greenish hue was also found on the female vampire’s palate last year.
Grave of the female vampire
Last year at the same site, archaeologists uncovered a grave of a female vampire with a sickle across her neck to prevent her from rising from the dead. The excavation was also undertaken under the leadership of Prof. Poliski, who said, “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,” reported Daily Mail.
According to the professor protective measure to prevent 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.
Europe’s vampire hysteria
Throughout history, Europe has seen waves of Vampire hysteria. The cause of these waves was fear of the unknown. There are several myths about the undead, going as far back as the 11th century. Many people feared that the dead would claw their way back to the surface and suck the blood of the living. Vampire graves in Europe date back to the Middle Ages and were common occurrences in Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and Romania. Many burial sites found in this region have a metal rod or stake hammered through the skulls of the deceased. It was a practice to ensure the dead remained dead.
The spread of the cholera epidemics through Eastern Europe in the 1600s led to irrational fear surrounding death and an increase in protective burial rituals. An account from 1674, states a town in Poland was terrorised by a man who believed to be the undead. The townspeople accused him of drinking blood and decapitated him.
Slavic legends about vampires became so widespread that they caused a mass hysteria that led to the executions of people rumoured to be vampires. Deaths of people through untimely ways such as suicide were often suspected of vampirism. Their bodies would be mutilated to stop them from rising from the dead.
Another wave of vampire hysteria occurred in the 1720s during the Habsburg monarchy in East Prussia. Two famous vampire cases, which were the first to be officially recorded, involved two men from Serbia. After their deaths, many people in the area died because of blood loss, including the son of one of the deceased, leading to mass hysteria and fear.
Researchers today believe that such mass hysteria waves throughout history were caused by poor knowledge of medical illness as well as a limited understanding of the decomposition of corpses. Leading common people to conclude the existence of real vampires.