Researchers believe they have found the remains of a 17th century “Vampire” childInsider reported that the archaeologist in charge of the dig explained to Insider how the child had been buried upside down with a padlock to calm the village’s fears the child might not come back from the dead.
The skeletal remains of the child, who anthropologists believe was 5 to 7 years old, were discovered in an unmarked, mass cemetery in the Polish village of Pień, near Ostromecko.
The “necropolis”, which is translated from Greek as “city of dead” also happens to be where Archaeologists found a “vampire woman” last yearThe dead woman was buried in a grave with a padlock on her big toe. She also had a sickle across her neck, which would have severed her head if the deceased tried to rise.
Archaeology professor Dariusz Poliński from Nicolaus Copernicus University, who led both digs, told Insider the two graves were found a mere two meters from one another in the cemetery, which his team believes to be a makeshift graveyard for “the excluded,” or those who were not welcome in Christian cemeteries for various reasons.
Poliński said he and his researchers have uncovered about 100 graves in the cemetery, many of which display irregular burial techniques including “anti-vampiric” tactics used to stop people “coming back from the grave,” including triangular padlocks attached to people’s feet to keep them tethered to the ground and evidence of grave sites being disturbed or dug into after the initial burial.
There are several reasons a person may have been buried in such a cemetery, Poliński said. It could be that the individual was feared by others because of their strange behavior or they may have had a physical disorder that altered their appearance.
“It might have also been a person died violently and suddenly in strange circumstances,” Poliński said via a translator. “Sudden deaths were something people feared.”
In the seventeenth century, villagers were also afraid of burying unbaptized children or those who had drowned.
Poliński said archeologists also found a collection of loose bones near the child’s gravesite, as well as a pregnant woman with a fetus determined to be about 6 months old.
Matteo Borrini told us that he is the principal lecturer for forensic anthropology in Liverpool John Moore University. Insiders Katherine Tangalakis Lippert and Marianne GuenotIn the past, “vampire buryings” were widespread in Christian Europe as early as 14th century.
The “vampiric outbreaks” were associated with mass deaths at the time that were not explained, but now are assumed to be pandemics and large-scale poisonings. Borrini, speaking to Insider, said that the common belief was that these “vampires,” would kill their own family first and then spread the disease to others.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
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