RapidEye
Female ‘Vampire’ Remains Discovered in 17th-Century Graveyard
Archaeologists have unearthed an extremely unusual burial ritual to prevent a return from the dead.
The remains of a female “vampire” with a sickle hovering above her throat were unearthed at an archaeological site in a 17th-century Polish cemetery. The gravesite located in the village of Pień was first discovered in August 2022.
The unidentified woman was buried with a silk scarf — a sign of high social class. The sickle is a clue that she was suspected of being a vampire, perhaps due to her physical abnormality of a large protruding tooth.
The sharp sickle was placed across her neck, suggesting that should she jolt awake after death, the trap would decapitate her. A padlock attached to the big toe on her left foot was also unearthed. This burial style is extremely unusual according to a professor from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun.
Eastern Europeans in the 17th century feared the existence of vampires although the reasons behind this belief remain mysterious.
