Remains of 17th-century female vampire found in Poland
In a cemetery built in the 17th century near Bydgoszcz in Poland, the body of a female vampire (vampire) was excavated. It seems that something like a sickle was placed on the vampire's skull, and a padlock was put on the thumb of the left leg.
Remains of 'female vampire' found with sickle across her neck and a padlocked toe in Poland - Arkeonews
Archaeologists unearth remains of 17th-century female “vampire” in Poland | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/09/archaeologists-unearth-remains-of-17th-century-female-vampire-in-poland/
Vampire-related lore dates back at least 4,000 years to ancient Mesopotamia. In Assyria , a demon goddess called Lamastu was feared to kill babies in their cribs and pregnant women. In addition, an entity called 'Lilith' that appears in Hebrew literature and folklore is said to kidnap infants and unborn children. Lamastu and Lilith are said to be the predecessors of Lamia, a mythical Greek monster that sucks the blood of young children, and are believed to have been the basis for later vampires. Legends of monsters that were the predecessors of vampires exist all over the world, such as the Chinese ``quai'', the Russian ``upir'', the Indian ``vetala'', the Romanian ``strigoi'', and the Greek ``vrykolakas''. Others have been passed down in folklore as fictional monsters with characteristics similar to vampires.
The existence of vampires was first reported in English news in 1732. This was reported because of the spread of rumors that `` a vampire-derived epidemic has spread in Eastern Europe ''. By the 19th century, lore about vampires had spread in Europe, and in 1819 John Polidori wrote the first novel about vampires published in English, The Vampire. After that, Sheridan Le Fanu released 'Carmilla' in 1872 and Bram Stoker released ' Dracula ' in 1897, and it is said that the vampire genre was established.
Vampires have a characteristic of ``reviving a person who sucked blood as an immortal'', so in medieval Russia, the corpse of a person suspected of being a vampire was cremated, decapitated, or a wooden stick was driven into the heart. It seems that there are traces of trying to prevent the corpse from reviving by doing so.
In Germany and the West Slavic regions, suspected vampires were decapitated and buried with their heads between their legs or away from their bodies. In other cases, the corpse was buried upside down, and the tendon of the knee was cut and buried. In Vrikoraka, Greece, the practice was to bury the corpse with a piece of pottery on which a cross was carved on the chest. Also, in areas where vampires were said to be vulnerable to Arismomania , poppy seeds and millet seeds were said to have been planted where vampires were said to be haunted, and this folklore was linked to The X-Files season 5 episode 12 ' ' Bad Blood ' pays homage.
What seems to be the body of such a vampire was excavated in a cemetery in Poland. The 17th-century cemetery near Bydgoszcz, where the vampire's remains were found, is believed to be an early medieval aristocratic cemetery discovered between 2005 and 2009. A team of archaeologists led by Darius Polinski of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland is said to have started excavating again at the cemetery in early 2022 to discover more artifacts.
The female skull found is below, buried in such a way that a sickle is hung on the neck, which is one of the typical measures when burying vampires and suspicious entities.
Some people have the custom of keeping a scythe or scythe near the cemetery to prevent monsters from entering their bodies. However, in Polish cemeteries, ``scythes are not laid flat, but positioned so that the head is cut off or injured when the deceased tries to get up,'' Polinski said. doing. Regarding the padlock on the big toe, Mr. Polinsky said, ``This symbolizes that one stage has ended and you can not return.''
Another feature of the vampire's body found in Poland is that it looks like it belongs to a woman with a high social status from the skeleton. On this woman's head was found the remains of a silk hat, priced unaffordable for lower-class women. In addition, it seems that the front teeth protruded very conspicuously in the female corpse, and it has been pointed out that this may have been the reason for suspicion of being a vampire.
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