Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials?

The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in

Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and

HistoricalEvidenceforVampiresinEurope

DavidBarrowclough1

ABSTRACT
Theidentificationofdeviantburialsasthoseofvampiresisafeatureofexcavatedskeletonsfrom
sitesacrossEaster,CentralandSouthernEuropeaswellastheBalkans.Basedonaclosereadingof
historic and folkloric sources researchers have sought to match features of excavated sites with
narrativedescriptionsdrawnfromvampirelegendandmyth.Thisstudycriticallyreviewstherecent
claims based on sites in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Poland and Slovakia. Whilst it is
foundthattherewasawidespreadbeliefinvampiresacrossEurope,itisarguedthatitisdifficultto
make absolute claims for vampire burials on archaeological grounds as in most cases there are
alternateandequallycompellinginterpretationsofthedata.

KEYWORDS
ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY, SIXTEENTH CENTURY, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, VAMPIRE, DEVIANT BURIAL, PLAGUE,
BLACK DEATH,FOLKLORE,PAGAN,BURIAL,WITCH, BALKANS, EASTERN EUROPE, CENTRAL EUROPE, SOUTHERN
EUROPE, BULGARIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, POLAND, GREECE, ITALY, SLOVAKIA, LESBOS, VENICE, APOTROPAIC,
VAMPIRIDZHIJA, PERPERIKON, SOZOPOL, PROSTEJOV, CELAKOVICE, DRAWSKO, GLIWICI, SOUTHWELL,
KILTEASHEEN,LAZZARETTONUOVO,NACHTZEHRER,KAMIENPOMORSKI

INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been a steady stream of publicity around the excavation of socalled
Vampireburials.Thevalidityofsuchclaimsisconsideredinthelightofbotharchaeologicaland
historical evidence, and the criteria for identifying burials as those of vampires discussed.
Vampiresareaconstantofpopularculture:film,televisionandnovels.Theaimofthispaperisto
lookbehindthispopularimagetoconsiderthearchaeologicalevidenceforvampireburials.

AVampireisamythicalbeingwhosubsistsbyfeedingonthebloodoflivingcreatures.Infolklore
vampires often visited loved ones and caused mischief or deaths in the community they
inhabitedwhentheywerealive.Bytraditionvampiresworeshrouds,andwereoftendescribed
asbloatedandofruddyordarkcountenance;unliketheimageofthegaunt,palevampire,which
datesfromtheearly1800s.

ThebeliefinvampireswaswidespreadacrossCentral,EasternandSouthernEuropethroughout
theMiddleAges(Baszczyk2014;Miller2012).TheworditselfisderivedfromtheoriginalSlavic
termopyrboropir,whichlaterappearsasvipir,vepir,orvapir(Miller2012).Beliefinvampirism
was connected with pagan spiritualism, and spread after the introduction of Christianity in the
tenth and eleventh centuries, which introduced inhumation in place of cremation for dead
bodies.

Slavicfolkbeliefsheldthatthosemostlikelytobecomeavampireweredrunkards,thievesand
murderers (Miller 2012), as were thosethat died by drowning and through suicide, along with
theunbaptizedandwitches.Thesevampires,vampir,werebelievedtobethemanifestationofan
unclean spirit possessing a decomposing body. Folk traditions varied regionally, but generally
held that vampires left their graves at night to suck the blood of the living, after which they
returned to their cemeteries. A variant of this tradition holds that after their death, appearing
completelynormal,theywouldarriveatatownandliveamongstthepeopleoftenevenmarrying

WolfsonCollege,UniversityofCambridge:dab32@cam.ac.uk

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

andfatheringchildren.Butatnighttheywouldbecomedangerousandwanderthecountrysidein
search of blood, perceived as the essence of life, and haunting the living. In both traditions
vampires survived nocturnally by drinking the blood of human victims and were accused of
pressingonpeopleintheirsleep,causingdiseases,particularlyepidemicsofplague,andeventhe
deathofpeopleandlivestock(Baszczyk2014).

It was not until the early eighteenth century that the term vampire was popularised after an
influx of vampire superstition into Western Europe from the Balkans and Eastern Europe. This
increased level of vampire superstition in Europe resulted in corpses being staked and people
beingaccusedofvampirism.Thereforealthoughvampiresthemselvesareentirelymythical,the
beliefintheirexistenceandtheascriptionofthetitlevampiretoactualpeopleisreal.

Afeatureofthevampiremythistheirnearindestructibility.Folktraditionsaysthatduringtheir
firstfortydaystheycouldbedestroyedbyeitheraVampiridzhija,aprofessionalvampirehunter
capable of seeing them, or by a wolf. Those that survived this initial period were thought to
increase in ferocity (Miller, 2012). Belief in vampires was such that in parts of Europe
precautionary steps were taken to inhibit the transmutation of the newly dead into vampires
(Baszczyk 2014). The most commons way of doing this were to destroy the corpses of those
thought most at risk of becoming vampires, notably by running a stake through the corpses
heart. According to superstition other methods were also viable including: burning the corpse;
decapitatingthecorpseandthenburyingtheheadbetweenthefeet,thelegs,behindthebuttocks
or away from the body. Alternatively the corpse could be buried upsidedown with the face
turnedtothebottomofthegrave,orthecorpsecouldbestakedwithawoodenpeg,preferablyof
ash,ormetalobjectsuchasanail.Sometimesthebodyorgravewouldbecoveredwithapileof
stones to weigh the corpse down, and the limbs of the body would be tied together. Another
traditionplacedapotropaicobjects,suchasscythesorsickles,onthebody,particularlyaround
the throat, or placed stones into the mouth of the deceased. Archaeologists excavating burials
foundtodisplayoneormoreofthesefeaturesaresometimestemptedtohailtheirdiscoveryas
thatofavampire.

The mythology of vampires is therefore wellknown with archaeologists and historians

explainingthebeliefinvampirismasanattemptbypeopleofpreindustrialsocietiestoexplain
thenatural,buttotheminexplicable,processofdeathanddecompositionofthebody(Baszczyk
2014). Modern science has usually dismissed these tales as folklore, however some
archaeologists in Eastern Europe and the Balkans have claimed that they have discovered
vampire burials, showing that our ancestors did indeed take these stories seriously (Affleck
2013). These burials all display incredible brutality that the excavators claim matches the
methods recorded in folklore to stop a vampire rising from its grave. This paper considers the
validityoftheseclaims,andhighlightssomeofthepitfallsofmakingthem.

DISCUSSION
A number of excavated burials have been found where a stake appears to have been driven
through the heart or chest of the corpse, which as we have seen is one of the ways that
superstitioncitescanbeusedtostopavampirerisingfromthegrave.AtPerperikon,anancient
ThraciancityinsouthernBulgariaclosetotheborderwithGreece,excavatorNikolaiOvcharov
announced that he had discovered just such a vampire grave dated to the thirteenth century
(Mastroianni2014;DayandAlexander2014).Theskeletonwasofamanagedbetween40and
50andhadaheavypieceofploughshareanironrod,usedinaploughhammeredthroughhis
chest. The ploughshare weighed almost two pounds and was thrust into the body with enough
forcetobreakthescapulabone(DayandAlexander2014).

TheburialatPerperikon(Figure1)wasverysimilartotwoothergravesexcavatedin2012and
2013byarcheologistDimitarNedev,intheBulgarianBlackSeatownofSozopol,200milestothe
east, nicknamed the twin vampires of Sozopol. One of the two fourteenth century burials
(Brunwasser 2012) had a ploughsharelike object driven through the left side of his rib cage
(Miller2012),whiletheotherhadanunidentifiablemetalobjectinhissolarplexus(Brunwasser
2012; Zolfagharifard 2013; Mastroianni 2014; Day and Alexander 2014). All three vampire
burialsweremale.

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Figure1.TheburialfromSozopol,Bulgaria,withheavyploughshare.

Archaeologists, including Nedev, interpreted the skeletons pierced through the chest with iron
rodsasvampireswhohadbeenstabbedinthiswaytokeepthemfromturningintotheundead
(Miller 2012). The Director of Bulgarias National Museum, Bozhidar Dimitrov, confirmed that
thepracticeofburialwithironspikesrunthroughthechestwascommoninruralcommunities
until the first decade of the twentieth century (Affleck 2013; Miller 2012). What is more
accordingtoDimitrov,aboutonehundredsuchskeletonshavebeenuncoveredinBulgaria(Day
andAlexander2014;Miller2012).Nedevsexplanationforthelargenumberofvampireburials
was due to the existence of a religious sect that was particularly active in Sozopol and the
surrounding region of Strandzha in Bulgaria. The rituals practiced in the name of Manichean
Bogomilismretainedmanypaganelements,includingthepeculiarburialpracticeofstakingthe
heart(Miller2012).

Accordingtotraditionavariationonstakingacorpsethroughtheheart,wastopinthebodyto
thegroundwithmetalstakesorweighitdownwithstones.Severalexamplesofthishavebeen
recorded across Europe. In 1994 on the island of Lesbos, Greece, near the city of Mytilene,
archaeologistHectorWilliamsdiscoveredanadultmaleskeletonwhosebodyhadbeenstakedto
theground(Figure2).Themedievalskeletonwasburiedinacrypthollowedoutofanancient
city wall, and unlike the other corpses in the cemetery that had been buried in simple winding
sheets,thisbodyhadbeenburiedinaheavywoodencoffin.Ithadthenbeennaileddowninits
grave,withseveralheavyeightinchlongironspikesdriventhroughtheneck,pelvisandankle
(Pringle2013).Theuseofironandthepracticeofstakingdownacorpsearebothwellattested
invampirefolklore,accordingtowhichvampirescouldnottoleratethetouchofiron,supporting
theassertionthatantivampireprecautionswerebeingtakenbythosethatburiedthebody.The
body was almost certainly that of a Muslim, making this the only example of a nonChristian
corpse to have been found treated in this fashion (Affleck 2013). Perhaps the mans outsider
statusmadethecommunityfearthathemightbeacandidatefortransmutionintoavampire.

A similar burial practice was found at Prostejov, Slovakia in 1991, where archaeological
investigationoftheancientchurchoftheHolyTrinityrevealedasixteenthcenturycryptburial
inthepresbytery.Thecorpseslegshadbeencutoffthebody,andlargestonesplacedontopof
them.Thewholehadthenbeenburiedinacoffinreinforcedwithironbars.Thisburialhasbeen
consideredtobevampiricforthesamereasonsasthatonLesbos(Affleck2013).

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Figure2.Stakedskeleton.Lesbos.

AtCelakovice,about30kilometersnorthofPragueintheCzechRepublic,fourteengraveshave
beenexcavated,eachwithmetalspikesdriventhroughtheirbodiesorheavystonesplacedupon
them. The graves are believed to date from the eleventh or twelfth century, with most of the
skeletons belonging to young adults, amongst whom were both male and female burials. It
appearsthattheyalldiedataroundthesametime,possiblyinaepidemic,butitisunclearwhy
thevillagersthoughttheseindividualswereatriskofbecomingvampires(Affleck2013).

A further three vampire burials have been reported from the excavations of a seventeenth to
eighteenthcenturyinhumationcemeteryinDrawskoinPoland.Allwereextendedinhumations,
supinewithheadsorientedtowardswestfacingeast.Twoofthem,matureadults,wereburied
with iron sickles placed around their necks (Figure 3), whilst the third, a younger adult, was
buried with the body tied up and stones put on his throat (Figure 4; Affleck 2013; Baszczyk
2014).

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Figure3.Burialwithanironsicklearounditsneck,Drawsko,Poland.

Figure4.Burialwithstonesaroundthethroat.Drawsko,Poland.

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Againtheburialswereinkeepingwithfolklore.Traditionallysickleswereconsideredapotropaic,
havingabilitytowardoffevil.Theactofburyingthesharpsickleswiththecorpsewasawayof
deflating the bloated vampire, which combined with the belief that iron was anathema to
vampires,ensuredthatthedeaddidnotrise.Anothermethodofkeepingasuspectedvampirein
their grave was believed to be the placement of heavy weights upon the body (Affleck 2013;
Baszczyk2014).

Thepositioningofheavystonesoverbodieshasbeenfoundinanumberofvampireburials.At
Vrasta, Bulgaria a medieval vampire burial site was found during excavations of an ancient
fortress. The grave of an elderly man of unusually tall height for the time, 1.8 metres, was
unearthed. Over his heart was found a deliberately placed processed white stone. His feet had
also been tied together, as if to make the corpse stumble if trying to return to the world of the
living(SofiaGlobe2014a).SimilarlyatPlovdiv,alsoinBulgaria,aweightwasfoundplacedover
thecorpse,thistimethehead(seebelow).

ArchaeologistAlexandraPetrovaarguedthatplacingastoneonthechest,notablyovertheheart,
waspartofanantivampirepractice,thatcouldalsoinvolvestabbingthecorpsewithastakeor
ironknife.Theaimwastopreventthedeceasedsreturntotheworldoftheliving(SofiaGlobe
2014a). Such rituals would be carried out particularly if the deceased fell into one of the
categories of dangerous people (above), or was a stranger to the community, or otherwise
consideredanoutsider,thuspromptingprecautionsagainsthimcomingbacktocausemischief
(SofiaGlobe2014a).

AgoodexampleofthismightbeconsideredthesiteatKamienPomorski,innorthwesternPoland
whereasixteenthtoseventeenthcenturyskeletonwasexcavated.Oneofthelegswasfoundwith
a hole punctured through it (Chubb 2014; Lorenzi 2014). This suggested to the excavator
SlawomirGorkathattheleghadbeenstakedtothegroundtopreventtheindividualfromrising
fromitsgrave.Inadditionastonethathadbeenplacedinthemouth(seebelow),whichtaken
togetherheinterpretedasevidenethatthishadbeenavampiricburial(Lorenzi2014).

Although this may seem conclusive evidence for a vampire burial a cautionary note is
introduced by considering the excavation of Southwell in Nottinghamshire, UK. A skeleton was
found with metal spikes pinned through the heart, shoulders and ankles. The placement of a
spikethroughtheheartinparticularattractedpublicinterestbecauseofitslongassociationwith
vampiresinmythandlegend(Affleck2013).HadthisburialbeenfoundintheBalkans,Centralor
Southern Europe it would automatically have been taken to be in the vampire tradition.
However,thisburialdatedtotheAngloSaxonperiod,AD550to700,whichpredatestheearliest
knownvampirelegendinEuropebyseveralhundredyears.Notonlycanitnotbetheburialofa
vampire, but it also establishes the existence of a burial tradition (in AngloSaxon England at
least) that appears in the archaeological record to resemble that of vampires but is seemingly
unrelated.

Anothersupposedtelltalesignofvampireburialsisthedecapitationoftheheadoramputation
ofbodypartsfromthecorpse.AtPerperikon,Bulgaria(above)inadditiontothemetalrodlike
ploughshare hammered through his chest the left leg of the corpse below the knee had been
removedandleftbesidetheskeleton(Mastroianni2014,DayandAlexander2014).Similarly,we
have seen that at Prostejov, Slovakia (above) the torso had been severed from the legs, over
whichstoneshadbeenplacedbeforethebodywasburiedinacoffinreinforcedwithironbars
(Affleck2013).Examplesofdecapitationseemtoberarerbutexcavationsattheconstructionsite
of a ring road near the town of Gliwice, southern Poland did reveal four skeletons found with
theirheadsremovedandplacedbetweentheirlegs.DrJacekPierzak,oneofthearchaeologists,
saidtheskeletonswerefoundwithnojewellery,beltbuckles,buttonsoranythingthatcouldaid
thetaskofdeterminingtheirage,butheestimatedthemtohavetheydiedsometimearoundthe
sixteenthcentury(Blake2013;Day2013).

Tradition records that those accused of being a vampire would sometimes be decapitated, or
alternativelytheywouldbehungfromagibbetand lefttorotuntiltheheaddroppedfromthe
body.Inbothcaseswhenthebodywasburiedtheheadwasplacedbetweenthelegs,inthehope

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

thatthelossoftheheadwouldpreventthecorpserisingfromthegrave(Blake2013).Historians
saythatthepracticewascommonintheSlaviccountriesfollowingtheadoptionofChristianity
(Day2013).ItwasthistraditionthatledDrJacekPierzaktointerpretthefourGliwiceburialsas
thoseofvampiresthathadbeenpreventedfromrisingfromthegravethroughtheirdecapitation
(Hickman, L. 2013). Although this is possible, a more likely explanation for the decapitated
bodiesfoundatGliwice,isthattheyareconvictedcriminalsexecutedataknownnearbygallows
(Hickman2013).

A further class of vampire burials that have been claimed are those where a stone had been
placed in the mouth of the corpse. At Plovdiv, Bulgaria, skeleton was found facing westwards,
withabrickfragmentplacedinitsmouth,andaclayroofingtileoverthehead.Theskeletonis
one of 80 found in a necropolis in the old town part of Plovdiv, tentatively dated from the
fifteenthtosixteenthcenturies(SofiaGlobestaff2014b).Thepracticeofplacingbrickfragments
intothemouthsofthedeceased,especiallythosebelievedmostlikelytoriseasundead,suchas
plague victims, was spread from Italy, leading archaeologist Elena Bozhinova to ascribe a
vampiricinterpretationtotheburial(SofiaGlobestaff.2014b).

On the small Italian island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon, two miles northeast of
Venice, Italian archaeologist Matteo Borrini excavated a plague pit, containing the corpses of
plaguevictimsburiedinthesixteenthandseventeenthcenturies.Indoingsodiscoveredwhathe
believed to be the remains of a female 'vampire'. The skeleton dated to the Venetian plague of
1576,inwhichtheartistTitiandied(Miller2012).Hefoundtheskullofamaturefemalewitha
brickplacedinhermouth(Patel2009).Onthebasisofthebrickheclaimedtheburialvampiric,
referringtothefolktraditionthatabrickorstoneplacedbetweenthejawswassaidtopreventa
vampire from feeding on victims of the plague (Miller 2012). Borrini said gravediggers shoved
the brick into the womans mouth with such force that they had broken some of her teeth
(Squires2009).

Similarviolentforcewasfoundduringtheexcavationofaburialdatedtobetweenthesixteenth
and seventeenth century, at a marketplace in the small West Pomeranian town of Kamien
Pomorski(above,Figure5),innorthwesternPoland.Therewereseveralunusualaspectsthatled
theexcavatorSlawomirGorkatoclaimthatitisavampireburial.Theseindicativefeatureswere
theremovaloftheupperteethandinsertionofafragmentofrockinthemouth.Inadditionthe
skeleton featured a leg with a hole likely made from a puncture. This suggested to Gorka that
stepshadbeentakentopreventtheindividualfromrisingfromitsgrave(Chubb2014;Lorenzi
2014).

Figure5.Skullwithbrickinitsmouth.

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

Inthesecasestheexcavatorswereawareofanancientfolklorictraditionthatavampirecorpse
couldeatthroughitsshroud.Thesevampiresweresometimesreferredtoasthenachtzehrer,a
Germantermmeaningnightwaster.ThesuperstitionwasbornamongtheKashubesofnorth
centralPolandandgoesbacktothirteenthcenturyBohemiaandMoravia.Thenachtzehrereats
the shroud in which it is wrapped, before leaving its grave to become a traditional vampire
(Patel 2009). Epidemic diseases, generally plague, were believed to be a result of the
nachtzehrer's chewing: plague both decimating the population, and supporting the growth of
vampires(Patel2009).

This superstition probably arose during pandemics when it was common to reopen tombs and
mass graves to bury other victims. This exposed people to bodies that were not completely
decomposed(Patel2009).Whattheywouldseeisaphenomenoncalledepidermolysisinwhich
the epidermis loosens from the underlying dermis and the nails fall off, exposing the nail beds
andgivingtheimpressionofnewgrowth.Atthesametime,thecorpsewouldbegoingthrough
theputrefactionstageinwhichtheabdomengetsbloatedfromthebuildupofgases.Thedecay
of the gastrointestinal tract contents and lining create a dark fluid called purge fluid that can
flowfreelyfromthenoseandmouth,andcouldeasilybeconfusedwiththebloodsuckedbythe
vampire.Further,putridgasesandpurgefluidflowingfromthemouthwouldmoistentheshroud
sothatitwouldsinkintothemouth,whichwouldopenasthemusclesrelaxedafterrigormortis,
givingtheimpressionthatthecorpsecouldeatthroughitsshroud(Patel2009).

BorrinilinkedtheburialatLazzarettoNuovowiththenachtzehrersuperstitionnotonlybecause
the skeleton was buried in a plague grave, but also because of the brick found in its mouth
(Figure6).'Tokillthevampireyouhadtoremovetheshroudfromitsmouth,whichwasitsfood
like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,' said Borrini (Miller 2012).
Actually,thecorrectwaytokillsuchavampire,suggestedbytradition,wastoexhumethebody,
removetheshroudfromitsmouth,andreplaceitwithahandfulofsoil,orbetterastoneorbrick,
sotheundeadwouldbepreventedfromchewingandwouldeventuallydieofstarvation(Patel
2009). It is noteworthy that tradition requires a slightly different treatment to that actually
describedbytheexcavator.Furthermoreithasbeennotedthattherewereseveralbricksinthe
vicinity of the corpse, leading some to argue that a brick may have accidentally fallen into the
skeletonsopenmouth(Choi2012).Thismayseemfarfetched,butdoescreatesomedoubtasto
the correct interpretation of this burial. Nonetheless, Borrini argued that the discovery at
Lazzaretto Nuovo supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of
plagues like the Black Death, and helps authenticate how the myth of vampires was born'
(Miller2012).

Figure6.LazzarettoNuovo

Barrowclough, D. Time to Slay Vampire Burials? The Archaeological and Historical Evidence for Vampires in
Europe.Firstpublished:19.10.2014.Cambridge:RedDaggerPress

The excavation of two burials overlooking Lough Key at Kilteasheen, Knockvicar, County
RoscommoninIrelandisalsoofsignificance.Archaeologistsfoundtheskeletonsofamaleaged
between40and60,andayoungadultprobablyinhistwenties,buriedsidebyside(Owen2011).
ExcavatorChrisReadreportedthat,Oneofthemwaslyingwithhisheadlookingstraightupand
a large black stone had been deliberately thrust into his mouth, while the other had his head
turnedtothesideandhadanevenlargerstonewedgedviolentlyintohismouthsothathisjaws
werealmostdislocated(Clancy2011;Owen2011).Thustheydisplaythesamecharacteristics
astheburialsinterpretedasthoseofvampires,andinitially,archaeologistsbelievedtheritualof
placingastoneinthemouthmayhaverelatedtovampireslayings(Owen2011).Howeverthey
were buried in the 700s long before vampires emerged in European folklore. Vampire culture
did not develop until the sixteenth century, and so cannot not be used to explain why stones
werefoundinskeletonsdatingfromtheeighthcentury.

CONCLUSION

TheforgoingarethelatestinasuccessionoffindsfromacrosswesternandcentralEuropethat
shednewlightonjusthowseriouslypeopletookthethreatofvampires,andhowthosebeliefs
transformed into the modern myth. This review of vampire burials establishes that although
belief in vampires was clearly widespread across the Balkans, Central, Eastern and Southern
Europefromtheeleventhcentury,reachingitsnadirintheseventeenthcentury,cautionneeds
to be exercised before pronouncing any individual burial to be that of a vampire. Archaeology
shows that there has long been a fear of the dead rising up to terrorise the living. In 2008, for
example,archaeologistsfounda4,000yearoldgraveinMikuloviceintheCzechRepublicwhere
the skeleton had been weighed down at the head and the chest by two large stones (Hickman
2013).Hadthisskeletonbeenonlyfourorfivehundredyearsolditwouldnodoubthavebeen
claimedasvampiric.

Weneedtobewarepresumingthatallsuchunconventional,deviant,burialsresultfromafearof
vampires (Chubb 2014). The unusual mortuary practices described here including staking,
decapitation and covering with stones are noteworthy, but quite often they may be better
explained as punishments for criminals, suicides, plague carriers or even witches rather than
suspectedvampires.

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