Just in time for spooky season, archaeologists have discovered terrifying new information about how a “real-life vampire” spent her final moments.
One noble female “vampire” His body, which died about 350 years ago, was first discovered two years ago in a medieval cemetery in Pińsk, Poland. New depictions of what the 18-year-old vampire might have looked like, named Zosia by researchers, reveal she had fair skin, blue eyes, short hair and a single protruding incisor tooth.
Zosia was also buried with a silk cap on her head, indicating that she was of a high social status.
But his rank would not protect him from being accused of evil: of the approximately 100 other skeletons at the grave site, only Zosia’s was found with a sickle around its neck and a giant lock on its toe.
Professor Dariusz Polinsky, who led the recent research on Zoysia with study partner Magda Zagrodzka, told daily Mail“It can be assumed that for some reason those who buried the woman were afraid that she would rise from the grave. “Maybe they feared she was a vampire.”
Experts believe that the sickle and lock were fitted as a “double protection” for the villagers out of fear that a “vampire” might rise from the grave; If he tried to rise from his grave the sickle would ensure that he would be decapitated.
Polinsky said, “The sickle was not held straight, but was placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, he would probably have been decapitated or injured.”
Polinski and Zagrodzka worked with facial recognition expert Oscar Nilsson, who took a digital scan of Zosia’s skull and created a copy using a 3D printer. They used clay to mold the new “muscles” of her face, as well as silicone to add new skin.
A bone scan conducted by Dr. Heather Edgar, a medical investigator at the University of New Mexico, found an abnormality in Zosia’s breast bone.
The abnormality suggests that there may have been some physical deformity that caused him great pain and “marked this person.” [to others] “In a negative way,” Edgar explained, “which is why there was a fear of her being a vampire before being sacrificed and buried.” many times,
With the Swedish–Polish Wars occurring at the time of her death, researchers believe it is possible that Zosia was Swedish and considered an “undesirable outsider”.
Signs of restraint were found on approximately 30 of the 100 graves, eventually earning the site the nickname “Vampire Field”.
Polinsky said the cemetery was specifically for those who were “excluded from the community;” However, not all graves were marked and there are no written records regarding the bodies.
Other graves include a partially exhumed child, a woman suffering from advanced syphilis, a pregnant woman, and a man with the corpse of a child at his feet.
Some bodies were turned face down, some were weighed down with stones and some had coins stuffed in their mouths.
“Methods to prevent the return of the dead include cutting off heads or feet, burying the deceased face down, burning, and crushing stones,” Polinsky told the Daily Mail.
The presence of a sickle on Zosia’s neck shows that her killers were most afraid of her.
according to smithsonian magazine, The people of Eastern Europe initially became fearful of vampires in the 11th century, believing that “some people who died would rise from the grave as blood-sucking demons who terrorized the living. “
By the 17th century, “unusual burial practices became common throughout Poland in response to alleged outbreaks of vampires.” science alert Informed.
Polinski and Zagrodzka plan to return for more excavations, including night-time excavations using fluorescent lights that can highlight new bones.
The latest findings about “real-life vampire” Zosia are the subject of a new two-part documentary called “Field of Vampires”, which will air on Sky History at 9pm on October 29 and November 5.
