Just in time for spooky season, archaeologists have unearthed grim new information about how a “real-life vampire” spent her final moments.
An elite female “vampire” who died around 350 years ago was first discovered two years ago in a medieval cemetery in Pień, Poland. Dubbed Zosia by researchers, new illustrations of what the 18-year-old vampire may have looked like suggest she had fair skin, blue eyes, short hair and a single protruding incisor tooth.
Zosia was also laid to rest with a silk cap on her head, signifying that she was of high social status.
But her rank would not save her from the accusation of evil: Of the 100 or so other skeletons at the grave site, only Zosia was covered with a sickle around her neck and a giant lock on her toe.
Professor Dariusz Polinski, who has led recent research on Zosia with research partner Magda Zagrodzka, told the Daily Mail, “It can be assumed that for some reason those who buried the woman were afraid that she would rise from the grave. Perhaps they had afraid she was a vampire.”
Experts believe that the sickle and padlock were placed on the corpse as a form of “double protection” for the villagers for fear that the “vampire” might rise from the grave; the sickle would have ensured that she would be beheaded if she tried to rise from the grave.
“The sickle was not lying down, but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, it is very likely that the head would have been cut or injured,” Polinski explained.
Polinski and Zagrodzka worked with Oscar Nilsson, a facial recognition expert, who took a digital scan of Zosia’s skull and made a copy using a 3D printer. He used clay to form new “muscles” to her face, as well as silicone to give new skin.
Bone scans examined by medical examiner Dr. Heather Edgar at the University of New Mexico found an abnormality in Zosia’s breastbone.
The anomaly suggests that there may have been a physical deformity that caused great pain and “marked this person [to others] in a negative way,” Edgar told the Times.
With the Swedish-Polish wars raging around the time of her death, scholars believe it is possible that Zosia was Swedish and considered an “undesirable alien”.
About 30 of the 100 graves were found with signs of confinement, which eventually led to the site’s nickname, “Vampire Field.”
Polinski said the cemetery was specifically for people who were “excluded from the community;” however, all graves are left unmarked and there is no written record of the corpses.
Other graves include a partially exhumed child, a woman with advanced syphilis, a pregnant woman and a man with the corpse of a child standing.
Some bodies were turned face down, some were weighed down with stones and others had coins in their mouths.
“Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite on the ground, burning them and hitting them with a stone,” Polinski told the Daily Mail.
Zosia having the sickle over her neck suggests that she was more afraid of those who killed her.
According to Smithsonian magazine, Eastern Europeans first feared vampires in the 11th century, believing that “some people who died would claw their way out of the grave as bloodsucking monsters that terrorized the living.”
By the 17th century, “unusual burial practices became common throughout Poland in response to a reported vampire outbreak,” Science Alert reported.
Polinkski and Zagrodzka plan to return for more digs, including a night dig using fluorescent lighting that could reveal new bones.
The latest findings about Zosia, the “real-life vampire”, are the subject of a new two-part documentary called Field of Vampires, which will air on Sky History in October. 29 and November. 5 to 9 pm
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Image Source : nypost.com