Vampire Burials

 Throughout history,  the Dead Rising and vampires seem to be a topic for many. The origins of the myths of these bloodthirsty creatures are still unclear and heavily debated, but the cultural impact they have imprinted upon us is undeniable. From works of fiction inspired—such as books like ‘Dracula’, ‘Twilight’, ‘Fangs’ and movies like ‘the invitation’, ‘Nosferatu’ and ‘thirst’— to fashion trends like vamp glam and Vampyre, — to niche subcultures like romantic goth, vampire goth, etc, it is abundantly clear how much these creatures fascinate us even when we know that they nothing more than superstitious myths. This fascination with vampires can be dated back to prehistoric times, times when they were seen as a legitimate threat of supernatural origin in a period when paranoia rooted in superstition around the occult resulted in fatal brutalities of innocent lives. The results of such brutalities lie 6 feet beneath the surface of Eastern Europe. 

Vampire burials have been a topic of interest in the field of archeology for a long time, which naturally attracted pseudo-scientific theories and claims. One of the more infamous theories that came out of this was the sighting of “burial cages” from medieval times that were believed to prevent the undead from escaping their graves, however, this was quickly debunked and proven to be mortsafes. Mortsafes were Invented in the 1800s in England when it was common practice for medical students to practice anatomy on real human subjects abundant in graveyards. These mortsafes were locked into the graves of those who didn't want to see their loved ones be test subjects or disturb their peace in the afterlife. 

Even though this theory of vampire graves was debunked, there have been real cases of vampire burials found throughout Europe, as well as in other parts of the world. While there are many theories as to where the vampire myth came from, it is almost impossible to actually nail down a single concrete source. Researchers have found that the fear of the undead or the dead rising is prominent in almost every culture, which is why we have “vampire burials” that predate the idea of vampires overall. We have pretty significant archeological evidence to suggest that these superstitions also predate the idea of a revenant as well. For instance, the grim discovery was made by construction workers in the Saxony-Anhalt region of Germany. While working on installing power lines, a construction team discovered unusual human remains which a team of archeologists were called upon to investigate. The archeologists discovered the grave of a man around the age of 50 who was buried on his side. His grave contained no grave goods, which was quite unusual, but what was even more unusual was that the man had been buried underneath a massive rock. The 3 feet long and 2.5 feet wide stone had been effectively placed on top of his body which his lower body and legs crushed. The hypothesis here was that this was also to prevent him from rising from the dead. A feature of this site is that it dates back almost 3500 years before the idea of a vampire. This burial is attributed to the bell beaker culture; while they might have had a different word for “the rising dead”, the idea and the superstition around it stay the same, and so does the prevention, which stays persistent for more than 4000 years as this specific strategy of using huge rocks to pin down a corpse is a recurring pattern in the actual vampire burials which reinforces the idea that even though, the concept behind the dead rising again have changed overtime some superstitious preventions have remained constant for thousands of years.

The eastern region of Europe was a goldmine for vampire burial findings which adds up to the idea that,  around the 10th century AD, when the Roman Catholic church had co-opted the pagan idea of a vampire. The fears and preventions of these superstitions were especially spread rapidly. This takes place coincidentally around the same time when the area had been devastated by multiple wars. The trauma of loss and destruction brought on by vicious wars would have permeated very deeply into the psyche of people at the time which could be a part of the reason people subdued themselves to religious panic. The priests were quick to point fingers at witchcraft and demons, which further ignited the Christian fear of demonology and the pagan superstitions that lay just below its surface.

Vampire hysteria around Eastern Europe started to especially ramp up around the same time as another one of the more infamous cases of mass hysteria to be recorded: the Salem witch trials which broke out in panic in the rural farming town of Salem in 1690. It was recorded that more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft, and 30 individuals were found guilty, of which 19 were put to death. This was not an isolated incident, as, around the same time, along the Anglo-Christian world, panic had broken out over the presence of demonic entities and the fear of demons, satan, and witchcraft with a fevered pitch. At the same time as the witch trials, a different kind of occult-based panic was happening across the ocean where the fear of vampires had transcended from an old superstition into a genuine concern, and as a result, people were persecuted accordingly.

For instance, a curious case was recorded by an Austrian official in about 1725. The story takes place in a town in Serbia where one of the townspeople the name of Petar Blagojevic, has passed away. But just in 8 days following Peter's death, 9 other people in the village died of a sudden and mysterious illness which was rather bizarre. What was more bizarre was that Almost every single one of them allegedly claimed to have had visions of Petar strangling them. The townspeople sought the local priest who was unable to secure a cause or a remedy for the situation, which led the townspeople to take matters into their own hands. As the story goes, the townspeople went on to exhume Petar’s body to inspect it for signs of vampirism and found him in a state as though he had just passed away, even though a significant time had passed since his death. His skin was unblemished, his nails were a bit longer, and his clean-shaved face now allegedly had a beard, alarming the townspeople. Petar’s corpse was then dragged out of his grave and staked through the heart to which the corpse bled as though he had just died. 

Furthermore, to ensure that this never happens again, the townspeople decided to burn the corpse down to ashes by building an enormous funeral pyre, at which point the hauntings and the mysterious deaths in the village had stopped altogether. The likely reason for this was probably a more complex and compound series of events that took place than simply the rise of an undead man; however, this further amplified the fear of the undead even more, causing people to do elaborate rituals to keep the dead, dead. Just like at the Salem witch trials, the things that drew accusations of vampirism varied immensely. But, unlike the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts, most of those people who were accused of vampirism were already dead.

Furthermore, there were many reasons people were accused of being vampires, some of which include 

Violent death, natural disaster, taking plays death, first to die in an epidemic that killed others, unbaptized, first one to die in a natural disaster, diseases, etc. There were several people accused of vampirism, causing drastic superstitious measures to be taken after the demise of an individual. In Poland alone, thousands of “vampire burials” were discovered. One of the more infamous cases of these would be at Drawsko Pomorski, where archaeologists discovered the remains of a cemetery that dated to around the 17th or 18th century and consisted of 6 graves of individuals who are believed to all have died from cholera.

Almost every single individual in this cemetery was found buried with elaborate burial superstitions that are reserved for vampires.

In one grave were the remains of a man aged between 35 to 45, who was buried in a simple wooden box, much like the rest of the individuals.

It was found that he was buried on his back with a small sickle over his throat which was another common burial superstition to prevent the rising of the vampire from the archeological While in another grave, a young woman between the ages of 16 and 19 was found with a copper headband around her forehead, a copper coin near her mouth, and a sickle over her neck. Similarly, the remains of a woman between 30 and 40 years old with a sickle across her neck and a coin in her mouth were also found in a similar state. There were also the remains of a woman aged between 35 and 40 who was found with a sickle over her neck and a coin in her mouth. However, this individual also had a crushed skull. It's believed that this was due to heavy machinery driving over the state beforehand, but it's still unclear as one of the other methods that were used to deal with vampires was to crush them with a rock.

 Likewise, remains of a woman between the ages of 50 and 60 were also found with a sickle across her waist, a coin in her mouth, a stone placed on top of her throat to stop her jaw from opening, and a lack of teeth. And lastly, the remains of a young individual whose age and sex were unable to be identified, who was found with a stone placed over their throat. Researchers suggest that Coins were believed to be off evil spirits, but it is also believed that things like coins and stones would be placed in the mouths of those accused of vampirism so that they have something to bite on them. Even though this was the most expansive vampire burials found, it was not the only one.

In the city of Peen, archaeologists discovered the remains of a woman from the 17th century. Elements from her grave suggested that she was of fairly high social status. However, sdateses a snaggletooth, which would have been enough evidence to suspect that she was a vampire. Like the other vampire burials, she was also buried with a sickle across her neck, a coin in her mouth, and a padlock in her toe. Locks in the toes or shackles on the legs were also a common prevention for vampirism. A similar discovery was also made in Clelm where the remains of a child’s grave from the 13th century who was crushed beneath large heavy stones, had been decapitated, and their severed head placed down into the grave which plays into the superstition that if a vampire is buried face down, they wouldn't be able to Rise.

Furthermore, some of these graves were also very common in the country of Italy. A woman’s remains were nicknamed the vampire of Venice after finding her in a mass plague grave with a brick shoved in her jaw. While in Lugnano, an archeological team led by David Soren had an excavation where they discovered something bizarre: the unusual burial of a child, uncharacteristic of anything else found at the site. The remains of a 10-year-old whose sex couldn't be identified were made out of roof tiles from the collapsed villa above, which they were investigating. This individual had been buried on their side with a stone with flecks of mortar in their open mouth. The flecks of mortar indicated that it had also come from the ruin above. This told archaeologists that this was not just a piece of rubble in the ground where the child had been buried, but had been placed there intentionally. This curious discovery came as a shock to the archaeologists who had never discovered anything like it, and earned this discovery a name: the vampire of Lugnano.

Vampire burials were also common in Bulgaria, where in Perperikon, the discovery was made of a 40-year-old man dating back to the 13th century. His remains were found staked through his heart with an iron rod; a classical vampire hunting technique. Similar to the discovery made in Sozopol, Bulgaria,  where the remains of two men dating back to the medieval period were also found staked through the heart, and lastly in Debelt where the remains of 6 individuals from the medieval period were discovered and there is evidence to suggest that all of them had been nailed down through their hand, feet, and torso to pin them down. These burials are just the tip of the iceberg, as more and more of these graves are being discovered to this day.

In conclusion, vampirism was merely a religious fearmonger fueled by religious panic, loss, and grief. The people who faced such accusations faced brutality even in the state of rest and were treated as legitimate threats, and the vampire burials scattered across Europe each held a deep story to them and revealed a horrifying case of mass hysteria that amplified superstitions and controlled the beliefs of the people from that time.