Researchers in Poland have unearthed the grave of a 17th-century woman with a sickle around her neck and a padlock hanging from her leg. Remains of children with padlocks under their feet were found nearby. The owner was nicknamed “vampire boy” in the media.
If reports from the time are to be believed, 17th-century Poland was overrun by “guerrillas” (or “animated corpses”); not vampires, but protosombia that prey on the living by drinking their blood, or, less unpleasantly, by creating terrifying creatures. The New York Times writes that there was damage to their homes. In one story dating back to 1674, a dead man rose from his grave to attack his relatives. When his grave was opened, it was seen that the body was unnaturally preserved and there were traces of fresh blood on its nose.
Such reports were so widespread that a variety of methods were used to prevent the corpses from reanimating: cutting out their hearts, hammering nails into their graves, hammering nails into their legs, hammering bricks into their jaws (so they wouldn’t trample their way through). outside). In 1746, a Benedictine monk named Antoine Augustin Calmet published a popular treatise in which he attempted, among other things, to distinguish genuine “revenues” from frauds.
Four centuries later, archaeologists in Europe discovered the first physical evidence of the supposed existence of a ghost child. During excavations at an unnamed fraternity cemetery on the outskirts of the village of Pen near the Polish city of Bydgoszcz, researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń discovered the remains of what was commonly referred to in the news as a “vampire boy”. The body, thought to be about 6 years old when he died, was buried face down with a triangular iron lock under his left leg, probably in order to tie the child to the grave and prevent him from haunting his family. neighbors.
“The padlock got stuck on his big toe”, – said Dariusz Polinski, one of the leading archaeologists who participated in the research. Some time after the funeral, the grave was desecrated and all bones except the lower limbs were removed.
“The child was buried in a prone position so that if he had risen from the dead and tried to stand up, he would have bitten into the ground instead., – Dr. points out Polinsky. – “To our knowledge, this is the only example of such a child burial in Europe.”. The remains of three other children were found in a pit next to the boy’s grave. In the pit, Dr. There was a green-stained jaw fragment that Polinsky assumed was left by a copper coin placed in the mouth, an ancient and common burial practice.
Necropolis, a makeshift cemetery for the poor, and Dr. What Polinsky calls this “souls abandoned and outcast by society”It was discovered 18 years ago under a sunflower field on a hillside. It was not part of the church and according to local historical records it was not on a sacred site. To date, approximately 100 graves have been discovered in the area; one of these, just a few feet from the nursery, contained the skeleton of a woman with a toe lock and an iron sickle around her neck. “The sickle was designed to decapitate a woman who was trying to stand up.”-Dr. explained Polinsky.
Chemical analysis showed that the green stain in his mouth was not from the coin but from something more complex. Traces of gold, potassium permanganate and copper were found in the ruins. Dr. Polinsky believes these may be leftovers from a potion prepared to cure his ailments. The cause of the woman’s death is unclear, but whatever it was must have frightened those who hid her.
According to historian Martin Ready from University College London, a woman and child do not qualify as vampires. He noted that vampires are a special kind of ghost; Its characteristics were first described in the 1720s by Austrian officials from the Habsburg dynasty who encountered suspected vampirism in what is now Northern Serbia and wrote reports that appeared in medical journals of the time.
“It was pretty obvious to them that in popular local legend, a vampire had three characteristics: he was a ghost, he fed on the living, and he was contagious.”said Dr. Reddy.
The New York Times writes that there are two types of dead people coming back to life in Polish legends. The ghoul, later replaced by the “vampire”, resembles the cinematic Dracula embodied by Bel Lugosi. Strzyga looked more like a witch — “i.e., in the old fairy sense, an evil female spirit or demon who hunts men, eats them, or drinks their blood.”, – says Al Ridenour, a folklorist from Los Angeles. Source
Source: Port Altele
