Archaeologists unearth remains of 17th-century female “vampire” in Poland

Vampire folklore across cultures has many tips on how to keep a recently dead person from becoming a vampire who preys on the living. Archaeologists have found an unusual example of people using these tips in a 17th-century Polish cemetery, where a female skeleton was buried with a padlock on her left foot.

There are tales of vampire-like creatures from 4,000 years ago. The Assyrians believed that a demon goddess named Lamastu killed babies in their cribs or while still in the womb. Lilith, Adam's first wife, is said to steal babies and unborn children. The Greek legend of a monster who sucked the blood from young children is related to these two.

The Russian upir, Indian vetala, and other Proto-vampires were reanimated corpses that rose from the grave and preyed on the living. Vampire hysteria caused a mass hysteria that swept Eastern Europe by the 19th century.

Many different approaches to ensure that the dead stayed dead were inspired by the fear evoked by such creatures. Russian villagers used to exhume and destroy corpses in the early Middle Ages. The creature would kill itself if it tried to escape.

The head of a suspected vampire was placed between the feet or away from the body. Placing crosses and pottery fragments on the chest of the dead was one of the strategies used. If a vampire was suspected of suffering from arithmomania, millet or poppy seeds would be left at the site. This bit of folklore was used in the X-Files episode " Bad Blood".

Between 2005 and 2009, archaeologists found jewelry, semi-precious stones, a bronze bowl, and fragments of silk clothing in the region's first early medieval graves. The Nicholas Copernicus University led the archaeological team that went back to the site in order to find more artifacts. They looked at the nearby 17th-century cemetery in the village of Pie.

The grave contained the female skeleton. There are other examples of anti-vampire burials in Poland. Several skeletons with severed heads were found in 2008, for example, and a body with a brick forced into the mouth was also found.

This find is different. There have been reports of people placing scythes near graves as an offering to prevent demons from entering the body, but this was different. If the person had tried to get up, the head would have been cut off or injured. The padlock on the big toe is symbolic of the impossibility of returning.

The care with which she was buried made the skeleton appear to be that of a woman of high social status. A member of a lower class would not have been able to afford a silk cap like that. She had front teeth that were very noticeable and she was buried in a way that made it look like she was dead. She might have been deemed a witch or vampire because of her appearance.