Maciej StromskiAs evidenced by this Polish burial people once believed that decapitation could end the “vampire curse.” While overseeing the expansion of a road in Luzino archaeologists came across a mass grave near a church the archaeologists found that several of the dead had been treated as “vampires.” Of the 450 bodies discovered near the church many had been apparently dug up and reburied Some had been decapitated and had a skull between their legs and 20 to 30 percent had bricks arranged alongside their head In addition, the archaeologists also found a “huge mass of loose bones deposited in three ossuaries,” according to the Polish site Nadmorski24.pl Lead archaeologist Maciej Stromski explained that the church near the graveyard was first built in the early 18th century At some point bones were deposited into the ossuaries But the “vampire” skeletons are certainly the most fascinating find “We discovered examples of belief in the dead returning from the grave which could only be stopped by decapitation,” Stromski explained to Nadmorski24.pl “It was believed that if a member of the deceased’s family was dying shortly after the funeral the grave was dug up and the deceased’s head was cut off who had been decapitated and reburied with “the skull of a child [laid] on her bosom.” The coins found in certain skeletons’ mouths was meant to seal in their soul and give them passage to the afterlife. According to Poland’s The First News at least one of the coins dates back to 1846 which makes sense as anti-vampire practices were popular in the 19th century the “vampire graveyard” full of decapitated skeletons and skeletons with coins in their mouths is part of a larger anti-vampire tradition reflected in Polish “literature folk tales and earlier archaeological research,” according to Nadmorski24.pl some of these ancient practices have been preserved in certain regions to this day Maciej StromskiMany of the skeletons had been decapitated and 20 to 30 percent had bricks laid around their head and limbs So where did these vampiric customs actually come from? According to Ancient Origins many cultures conflated people suffering from tuberculosis with vampires they were thought to have the “vampire’s curse.” legends around vampires could be a bit different Ancient Origins reports that vampires were thought to be more like zombies — corpses that came back to life people believed that decapitating skeletons feared to be vampires could prevent them from rising from the dead Maciej StromskiIn addition to the skeletons treated as vampires archaeologists also found a “huge mass of loose bones deposited in three ossuaries” near the 18th-century church Vampire legends date back to at least the 11th century Sometimes the living would decapitate suspected vampires like in the Polish vampire graveyard but sometimes they’d go a step further To ensure that the vampire didn’t rise from its grave they’d hammer a metal rod straight through the deceased’s skull Hopefully now the dead of the Polish vampire graveyard — dug up at least twice — will finally be able to rest in peace After reading about the “vampire grave” discovered near a church in Poland, discover the eerie story of the vampire skeleton found in Pien, Poland, with a sickle across her throat. Or, learn about the child subjected to a vampire burial in ancient Rome This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Miroslav Blicharski/AlexsanderThis skeleton was found with a sickle across her throat a sure sign that her contemporaries believed that she was a vampire Though stories of real vampires like Arnold Paole and Peter Plogojowitz were well documented by officials who witnessed their exhumations many accused vampires were dealt with by villagers without the authorities looking over their shoulders you only have to look at recent archaeological discoveries of “vampires” in Poland While excavating a site near Pień, for example, archaeologists uncovered a shocking sight: a female skeleton with a sickle laid across her throat and a padlock on her toe this was a preventive measure to keep the “vampire” from rising from the dead “The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured,” Nicolaus Copernicus University Professor Dariusz Poliński explained to the Washington Post of the hair-raising find Maciej StromskiA headless skeleton in Luzino which was apparently decapitated to keep a “vampire” from rising from the dead The more they looked, the more “vampire” graves the archaeologists found near Pień. Most recently, they uncovered the grave of a child with a padlock on its ankle which was likely another preventive measure to keep the vampire from rising from the dead A similar discovery was also made in Luzino, Poland, where archaeologists found a graveyard full of vampires Many of the dead had coins in their mouths and others had bricks laid near their arms and legs vampires are like zombies — corpses that can rise from the dead measures like laying a sickle across a grave or putting bricks on a skeleton were meant to keep them buried securely in the ground