Archaeologists have just made a strange discovery: the remains of a woman, buried with a sickle above her neck, to prevent her from rising from the dead. But that’s not all ! Other signs indicate that this woman was considered a real “vampire”.
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[EN VIDÉO] Experts of the Past: The Mystery of the Skeleton with the Iron Tooth During excavations carried out in the department of Aube, archaeologists unearthed a skeleton. In his mouth, a missing tooth was replaced by a metal prosthesis. In order to find out more about the conditions of this intervention, Inrap (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) is conducting the investigation during this episode of Experts from the Past.
The discovery was made in the village of Pień, Poland: the remains of a female skeleton “vampire” were unearthed by a team of researchers from Nicholas University Copernicus during archaeological digs in a 17th century cemeterye century. She was found wearing a silk cap, suggesting a high social status but especially with a sickle above her neck. A practice that researchers have attributed to protection against vampires: the sickle would serve to prevent him from returning as a vampire.
“The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to stand up…the head would have been severed or injured”Dariusz Poliński told the DailyMail, who led the excavations. But also, the woman discovered had a particularly protruding front tooth, which could correspond to the teeth that one expects when one thinks of these monsters bloodthirsty. Finally, a padlock wrapped around his big toe left also symbolizes a particular funeral rite to prevent the deceased from returning from the dead.
Such practices were common in the 17the century
According to the researchers, this type of vampire burial was commonplace during the Middle Ages and until the 18the century. In order to prevent the dead from returning as vampires, burials ranged from simple decapitation to all sorts of artifices such as a metal rod through the body or a padlock around the toe seen in the woman found. “Other ways to protect against the return of the dead are to cut off the head or legs, place the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burn them and smash them with a stone”D. Poliński told the New York Post.
Other tombs of vampires were exhumed in Poland a few years ago, as reported by a study in Plos One. According to researchers, this hunt for vampires could find its explanation in a epidemic of cholera : them symptoms would have been interpreted as supernatural, and the sick as evil creatures.
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