At an archaeological site in Poland, extraordinary bones of an alleged “vampire” have been found.
A sickle had been placed across the female body’s throat, anchoring it to the ground, as discovered by experts.
According to Nicholas Copernicus University Professor Dariusz Poliski, the sickle was not positioned flat but rather placed on the victim’s neck in such a manner that, if he or she had attempted to move, it was possible that their head would have been chopped or otherwise injured.
The university team reported that she had a protruding tooth and also a cap on her head, both of which were indicators of her social status. Interestingly, she had a padlock on one of her toes as well.
According to Professor Poliski, padlocking the skeleton’s left foot’s big toe likely represented “the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning,” he told the reporters.
He added: ‘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.’
Both today’s and medieval popular culture contain elements of vampires and zombies.
Many people thought corpses would resurface as blood-sucking monsters as early as the 11th century when they would push their way back up through the ground.
This was partially brought on by the prevalence of infectious diseases like cholera during the period.
According to Dr. Lesley Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama, people in the post-medieval age had no knowledge of how disease traveled, therefore they attributed cholera epidemics and the fatalities they caused to the supernatural, in this case, vampires.
Both in medieval and modern popular culture, vampires and zombies are prevalent.
In a 400-year-old cemetery in the town of Drewsko, 130 miles away, archaeologists discovered six remains interred similarly in 2014.
Sickles were discovered pushed on the throats of a 35–44 year-old adult male and a 35–39 year-old adult female.
