Anastasia Garceau

AANT 631

Vampire Burials

The concept of vampires and mortuary practices that are

practiced in the attempts to keep any perceived restless dead

from returning from the grave are interesting forms of deviant

burials, as individuals are singled out in a heightened sense of

necrophobia rather than carrying out such apotropaic practices on

the whole community. The “vampire” has had different attributes

lost and gained in different places and over time, but at its

essence it has remained, for the most part, the unwelcome undead.

However, the methods for preventing them are similar wherever and

whenever, as can be seen in the physical remains and in the

folktales that describe how to keep the dead in place.

Burial was a feature of human societies by the later Stone

Age, or Upper Paleolithic ~40,00 and 10,000 years ago (Jenkins

2010: 269). The fear that the dead would no longer stay buried

likely was not too long to follow. Many believe that the soul of

the deceased doesn’t immediately reach its final destination

after death, but remains in a liminal period. At this time the

corpse may be considered polluting and so cathartic measures are

applied before and after the funeral in order to be sure that

there is no chance of anything evil returning from the grave

(Tsaliki 2008:5). It has been suggested that the “triple burial”

of Dolni Vestonice dated to the Upper Pal

eolithic 25,000 years ago might even contain a vampire

(Beresford 2010).

Ancient examples of mortuary practices meant to ensure the

dead remain buried, possibly viewing them as some form of

potential vampire, can be seen in Neolithic and Chalcolithic

Cyprus c. 7000-2500BC , where individuals were often buried in

small shallow pits with the knees bent against the chest in

contracted positions. Slabs or multiple smaller rocks were put on

the chest or on the head as well as wedging of the head with

lumps of pise construction material or pebbles have been

recorded, as well as decapitation to prevent the dead from

returning. (Tsaliki 2001). Similar practices have been recorded

in the Levant and in a Middle Helladic grave from the Argolid,

Greece c. 1900-1600BC (Tsaliki 2007).

Another ancient example is the site of Capo Colonna in

Southern Italy that dates to the Early Iron Age of the 9-8th

century BC. Two graves were found at this site, which is

believed to have been a religious site, with a building and paved

courtyard (Saponetti et al. 2007:339). Grave 1 was found within

the building containing three individuals, all buried in a supine

position with the heads facing eastward. The bodies were

overlapping each other, suggesting that they were buried at the

same time. However, what indicates a possible action of

necrophobia is the placement of boulders on top of each of the

individuals in this grave in addition to the individual in Grave

2 in the courtyard. This individual differs from those in Grave 1

in its position, as the body is huddled up with the forearms

flexed under the abdomen and the heels touching the hip bones,

with the dead facing eastward in a prone position. It too is

sealed in by a slab placed over the body on the back (Saponetti

et al. 2007:340).

The skeletal remains of one of the individuals in Grave 1, a

man around 35 years old, exhibit alterations of the thoraco-

lumbar segments of the vertebral column that suggested a serious

inflammatory infection, possibly of Pott’s disease (Saponetti et

al. 2007:342-343). The individual in Grave 2, a 20-25 year-old

man, also shows pathological features which include localized

areas of inflammation on the surfaces of some ribs and the left

nasal bone; the orbital roofs also shoe lesions that present

cribrotic cribra orbitalia (Saponetti et al.2007:343). One of

the commonalities shared by vampires worldwide is their presence

associated with that of some sort of unknown illness or an

outbreak of an epidemic.

There are several possible signs that are attributed to the

presence of vampires, with the most common being the association

with some sort of illness. Those who are potential candidates for

transformation into these creatures are those who had died either

unusual or particularly violent deaths like suicide or drowning,

or were unbaptized at the time of death (Blaszczyk 2009).Other

predispositions include curses, excommunication, witchcraft,

immoral life, lycanthropy, killed by a vampire, heresy, physical

disabilities, an unavenged murder victim and various other

possibilities that can range as bizarre as simply having red hair

(Tsaliki 2007). Other possible motivations for belief in

vampires could be cases of premature burial in which a person,

hopefully, really would be seen coming out of a grave. Cases of

bodies perceived as not decomposing is another factor, as is

witnessing and not understanding the later stages of

decomposition (Blaszczyk 2009).

Medical causes could also be taken as signs of vampirism in

a person, as sufferers from diseases such as porphyria, pellagra

and rabies do match the description of the classic vampire.

Porphyria is a rare genetic disorder leading to a breakdown in

the production of heme, the red pigment in blood. It causes the

skin to become hypersensitive to sunlight, gum tissue to recede

and give the appearance of fangs, and some victims may even grow

hairier (Jenkins 2010:16). Rabies symptoms also match vampire

descriptions, with bared teeth, bloody frothing at the mouth and

hoarse groans induced by spasms of the face caused by visual

stimuli or strong odors, such as garlic for example (Jenkins

2010: 15).

Pellegra is another disease that causes hypersensitivity to

light, turning the skin scaly and parchment-thin, blackening the

tongue from bleeding sores and leads to insomnia, irritability

and dementia. It results from a deficiency of niacin and

tryptophan, typically due to a diet overly dependent on corn

(Jenkins 2010:17). Perhaps the connection with corn was made at

some level, since one mortuary practice to prevent vampires

requires placing poppy seeds, millet, or sand on the ground

around the body (Blaszczyk 2009). The most common method may

cause issues with determining for certain whether or not the

practice was carried out solely for the purpose of vampire-

proofing a village or town, as burning the corpse was done for

other reasons too. Decapitation and placing the head between the

feet, behind the buttocks or away from the body as well as

binding a corpse are other common features that can be seen

archaeologically (Blaszczyk 2009).

Another famous way to make sure the body stays in the ground

is to stake it to the ground, sometimes with a wooden stake or

peg or a metal object like knives or nails. Or, as in the cases

of the ancient vampires, placing stones on top of the bodies and

graves to keep them pinned down. Stones, in addition to other

objects like coins, tiles, or bricks, are placed into mouths are

other methods. Other apotropaic items, such as scythes or sickles

as well as other variants, may be placed on or near the body

(Blaszczyk 2009). Of course the best way to ensure that there are

no vampire transformation occurs is the least likely to stand out

archaeologically in regards to other burials – observing the

proper burial customs and rituals (Blaszczyk 2009).

Accounts of these kinds of deviant, vampire burial practices

appear in various places in both the Old and the New World. In

Poland, there are a few sites worth mentioning that are more

recent than the ancient vampires of Cyprus and Italy. At the

site of Gliwice during construction for a highway, the graves of

four skeletons were found. The heads had been severed and were

resting upon their legs according to an ancient Slavic burial

practice for dealing with suspected vampires (Pringle 2013).

These graves didn’t provide much for the archaeologist at this

site Dr. Jacek Pierzak to help solidly date the graves such as

jewelry, belts or buckles, but it is believed that they date to

around the 16th century ( LeBlond 2013). There is a theory that

these individuals died from a cholera outbreak, and that is

potentially why they might have been suspected of being or

becoming vampires (Polskie Radio Dla Zagranicy 2013). Another

theory is that these individuals could instead have been victims

of execution at a known nearby gallows which may also have

somehow made them fit into vampire lore, although both of these

theories still need further research (LeBlond 2013).

Drawsko is another Polish site with examples of vampire

burials, which have been dated as17th-18th century inhumations.

Three of the burials are cases of certain cases of vampires,

since seen by the placing of stones and other apotropaic items.

All of these burials were extended inhumations, supine with the

heads oriented towards west facing east. Two of these figures,

mature adults, were buried with iron sickles places around their

throats. The third was a young adult, and differs from the other

vampires in that the body was tied up and buried with stones

placed on the throat. Sickles and other sharp objects were placed

in the graves of possible vampire as a way to “deflate” the

bloated vampire if s/he should indeed transform into this

creature. It is speculated that further excavations at this site

may produce more examples of vampire graves (Dariusz Błaszczyk

2009).

An area that seems to find more and more examples of these

vampire burials is that of Bulgaria, which has about a hundred

other vampire burials in addition to the site of the Black Sea

town of Sozopol. This site includes two overlapping churches

that were in continuous use for a large span of time, ranging

from the 6th to the 17th century. Archaeologist Dimitar Nedev has

dated these graves to the 14th century, but is unable to identify

them any further as is the case with other vampire burials around

the world. One of the skeletons had a plowshare-like object

driven through the left side of his rib cage and the other also

had a metal object, although unidentifiable, driven into his

solar plexus (Brunwasser 2012: 13).

The anonymity of these graves may be related to the fact

that that at the time of these burials, portions of the

population in Bulgaria had been practitioners of Manichean

Bogomilism, a sect of Christianity that called for a return to

early Christian teachings and a rejection of the political

ambitions of their current ecclesiastic leaders (Brunwasser 2012:

13). Bogomilism, named for one of its early priests, was a

dualist religion, which means that it considered all matter as

evil and all spirits as good. Due to its fierce opposition to

anything hierarchical, they were often considered to be heretical

(Jenkins 2010: 195-196).

It is interesting to consider the concept of heretic with

the early connotations of the word vampire. The earliest written

evidence of the creature appears in the margin of a manuscript

called the Book of Prophets, a copy of a work whose original

dates to 1047, although at this time is was written as oupir or

upir (Jenkins 2010:193). In parts of Russia, where this

manuscript was written, the vampire had been subsumed under the

broad category of “spiritual outlaws’, otherwise known as

heretics. The relationship between these words may actually be

the other way around too, with the word heretic along with pagan,

may once have been subsumed beneath vampire (Jenkins 2010:192).

The vampire, both the word and the concept, may likely be rooted

in the social, political and the religious realities of the day

(Jenkins 2010: 198).

Another place to find the remains of the vampire is in

Greece, which has a long history of vampire-like creatures.

Special festivities for the honor and appeasement of the dead

were held – the Anthesteria in Athens and the Roman Lemuria,

Laralia and Saturnalia which were connected to the idea that the

living could be attacked by the dead (Tsaliki 2008:6). They are

even mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, which states that the dead

like drinking blood (Nuzzolese 2010: 1634). In Byzantium, Slavic

influence and the Greek Orthodox Church formed the Greek vampire

known as “vrykolakas”. This is the Slavic word for werewolf, as

the belief was that all werewolves would become vampires after

death (Nuzzolese 2010:1634).

Ethnographic accounts records some of the mortuary practices

observed in Greece were made in 1865 by Sir Charles Thomas Newton

and Sir Dominic Ellis Colnaghi as they travelled across the

Levant. At Rhodes, they describe how at funerals, a pitcher of

water is broken over the grave at the time of interment and place

a piece of ancient Greek tile inscribed with the pentalpha by the

priest, on the mouth of the deceased (Newton 1865: 212). At

Mytilene, they explain how the bones of those who are believed to

“not lie quiet in their graves” are shipped over to a small

adjacent island to be reinterred. This provides a sense of

security for the inhabitants of this village, since the belief is

that vampires cannot cross salt water (Newton 1865: 231).

The “vampire craze” of Greece occurred during the 17th-19th

century, which these descriptions fit into, as protective amulets

in the shape of crosses and pentagrams/pentalphas were commonly

worn or placed around the house in addition to being placed on

corpses like the tile in the Rhodes account (Tsaliki 2008: 8).

An example of such vampire burials is in found in the 19th

century Turkish cemetery near the north harbor of Mytilene, the

principle city of the Greek island of Lesbos. This body was

discovered in a stone-lined crypt hollowed out of an ancient city

wall (Williams 1994: 22). In this cist grave, a man around 60

years old or more was buried with three bent spikes about 16cm

long with square sections and large heads found in association

with the bones (Tsaliki 2008:13). Of course, in keeping with the

vampire custom, this association means that the spikes were

through the neck, pelvis and ankle of the individual (Williams

1994: 22).

This practice recounted by 18th and 19th century travelers is

noted as a predominantly Christian practice, which makes it all

the more interesting to find it carried out in a Moslem cemetery

(Williams 1994: 22). This suggests a sharing of ideas regarding

how to deal with the fear of certain dead individuals between

groups, probably emphasized in this case due to the close living

proximity between Greeks and Turks in this area. The idea of why

this individual may have been singled out is also a trait shared

in various cultures. In addition to attempting to explain the

spread of illnesses whether large-scale or within the family,

physical deformities can also lead to the suspicion that a person

may become a vampire (Tsaliki 2008:14).

This man had a wide range of pathologies and deformities

that might explain the postmortem treatment afforded to him.

Skeletal analysis shows that he suffered frontal sinusitis with a

large cloaca formation to the right of the nasion which resulted

in several facial deformations. There was an asymmetry of

supraorbital ridges, nasal, and maxillary and mandibular

deformities that may have led to facial paralysis. In addition to

these, a healed fracture over the left eye orbit appears to have

been from sharp-force trauma, suggesting his facial features may

have caused him to be stigmatized in life and in death (Tsaliki

2008: 13-14).

Another Italian vampire, more recent than the Early Iron Age

example, is the body found in a Venetian mass grave, known as ID

6. This body of a woman was preserved from half the chest to the

skull because, since it was a mass grave in constant use during

outbreaks of the plague, it was cut at the humeral diaphysis when

later graves were dug (Nuzzolese 2010: 1635). The excavation

area where this body was discovered is located in a cemetery site

near an ancient wall built after a health and quarantine decree

of the Republic Senate, dated July 8, 1468. Stratigraphic data

along with the find of a devotional medal coined on the 1600

Jubilee allowed for the dating of intact bodies to the 17th

century plague. These corpses were buried by digging into

previous graves, which can be seen by the state of ID 6, which

dates to the previous Venetian plague in 1576 (Nuzzolese

2010:1634-1635).

This woman was interred supine in a simple burial pit, with

her arms parallel to the rachis axis. All joints were in

anatomical order, except for a slight "verticalization" of the

left clavicle produced by a wall effect from a shroud, which also

caused some slumping and splaying of the ribs (Nuzzolese 2010:

1635). However, what made this woman stand out among the other

plague victims is the moderate size brick that was placed in her

mouth. It’s not likely that the brick was part of the sediment

fill that simply got lodged in the mouth, but instead appears to

be quite intentional, with symbolic and ritual value since the

gravediggers risked infection in order to handle the corpse in

this manner (Nuzzolese 2010: 1635).

Lack of alteration on the skeletal joints suggests that the

body was not yet disjointed at the time it was uncovered and

subsequently altered, or “exorcised”. However, the insertion of

the brick into the mouth at the time of the primary interment can

also be ruled out. There is no reference, even folkloric, of

doing so in that historical and cultural context (Nuzzolese 2010:

1637). Instead, this probably occurred as the gravediggers

encountered the body in a stage of decomposition not well known

while reopening the grave to bury more bodies. They likely would

have observed the phenomenon of epidermolysis, which gives the

impression of new nail growth. Her body would also have been

undergoing the putrefactions stage where the abdomen swells due

to the build-up of gases inside the body (Patel 2009).

The connection is made with this body and the “nachtzehrer”,

German for “night-waster”. The gases and “purge fluid” that would

flow from the nose and mouth as the gastrointestinal fluid decays

would provide the impression that the “vampire” has just recently

eaten. It also would moisten the shroud around the mouth that

this woman’s body would have been wrapped (Patel 2009). This

would have caused the shroud to sink into the mouth and be broken

down, giving the impression that the vampire was actually chewing

through the shroud, which is where the connection with the

nachtzehrer is made. This superstition is from the Kashubes of

north-central Poland, going back to the 13th century in Bohemia

and Moravia, and spreading throughout Europe in the 17th century

(Patel 2009).

The fear of the dead returning from the grave to haunt and

terrorize the living prompted the attempt to study them and to

provide a “scientific” overview of these creatures. A prominent

example of such a work is offered by Protestant theologian

Philippus Rohr or the University of Lipsia. In 1679 he published

his “Dissertatio historico-philosophica de masticatione

mortuorum” to describe the habits of the revenant. According to

him, the nachtzehrer eats through the cloth, making noises

similar to a pig as it does while in its larval stage, until it

becomes stronger and can leave the grave to become a

“traditional” vampire (Patel 2009). Epidemic diseases like the

plague were believed to have been caused by the nachtzherer’s

chewing as a part of some bizarre, “inverse food chain” in which

the plague wiped out the population and supported the growth of

vampires (Patel 2009).

This Italian woman, which dental analysis has suggested was

a 60+ year-old woman, was associated with the nachtzehrer because

of being in a plague grave as well as the obvious sign of the

brick in her mouth. Tradition and Rohr’s suggestion of how to

kill a revenant is typical of other variants of the vampire,

requiring the body to be exhumed and the shroud removed and

replaced with a handful of soil, stone or brick. This was

considered to solve the problem of the vampire’s chewing, causing

the undead to never progress pass the larval stage and die again

from starvation (Patel 2009). The concept of placing things in

the mouth of the deceased, typically after exhuming the body, can

also be seen in other regions of the world. Sites in Ireland

provide a few examples of this as well as the practice of another

vampire-proofing technique of prone burials.

In Ireland, as with other places, unbaptized children,

mothers who dies in childbirth, murderers and their victims,

strangers, and suicides were all excluded from burial on

consecrated ground and so were potential vampires (Farrell 2012:

57). Vampire burials are noticed in early medieval cemeteries in

the 5th to 12th centuries, in Christian cemeteries. However, if a

corpse was found decapitated, it may not necessarily be due to

fear of the individual becoming a vampire since it could also be

connected to the Celtic cult of the dead that apparently was

still being practiced in Ireland during the medieval period

(Farrell 2012: 57-58). But examples of deviant burials that have

been considered as vampire burial include the use of stones

placed on the body or in the mouth in addition to on the grave.

At the site of Mell II Co. Louth, there are two examples of

stone-lined graves that had extra stones included within the

grave. One grave had nearly been filled with stones and the other

had an extra line of stones placed down the middle of the grave

directly over the body (Farrell 2012: 62).

At Kilteasheen, Co. Roscommon, another couple of individuals

show signs of treatment as though they were considered to be

vampires. The two males, one elderly and the other a young adult,

each had a large stone placed deliberately within the mouth. They

were buried side-by-side, but not at the same time. One man’s

skull had the jaw nearly dislocated due to the force exerted when

the stone had been violently inserted into the mouth (Farrell

2012: 63). Other examples of vampire burials are the prone

burials that have been found in sites in Ireland. Burying the

body face down was a method believed to prevent he dead from

digging its way out of the grave, as it was connected with the

belief that the soul exits through the mouth. The soul would be

prevented from leaving or re-entering the body, depending on

which version of the vampire a town or village considers (Farrell

2012:64). However, as with any cases of decapitation found, an

alternative interpretation of prone burials exists for those of

children. These prone burials are thought to be of illegitimate

children, as it was believed that burying the child face down

would prevent the father from siring another child (Farrell

2012:63).

The vampire isn’t a creature transformed from adults, as

there are cases of child vampires too, based on the methods used

in their burial that resemble those practiced for adults. In

Poland, examples can be seen in medieval cemeteries dated between

the 10th and 13th century of inhumations of children of varying

ages the graves of infants younger than 3 had no grave goods at

all, but different kinds of objects were included in the graves

of the older children (Gardela and Duma 2013: 315). These goods

include knives, silver or bronze jewelry such as the “temple

rings” with Slavonic head adornments usually made from silver,

along with glass bead, spindle whorls, and ceramic vessels.

Occasionally even weapons such as arrows, arrowheads and axes are

found in graves, sometimes in miniature form (Gardela and Duma

2013:315-316).

From the late 10th century, the majority of individuals were

buried in a supine position and oriented east-east, with the head

to the west. The non-normative north-south orientation of some

graves could be interpreted as part of the vampire burials but

also could be related to earlier pagan beliefs. Either way they

are rites intended to signify a “difference” in some particular

way (Gardela and Duma 2013:320). The majority of the child

graves were flat but some also had stones in their external or

internal structures, such as a stone-lined cist or a grave mound

covered with a layer of stones (Gardela and Duma 2013:316).

Children were often buried alongside one or more individuals in

wither a supine position or a flexed position, although flexed

burials are less common (Gardela and Duma 2013: 316).

The inclusion of grave goods and a difference in body

orientation signify “difference” also includes the already

mentioned burials of tightly contracted positions implying

tightly bound when buried, placing of stones on the neck of the

body, casting of weapons, placing of ceramic eggs in the grave

and of course, decapitation (Gardela and Duma 2013: 320-322).

Eggs among the Slavs were strongly connected to the cult of the

ancestors, perceived as symbols of “hidden and resurgent life”.

Placing them in the graves are often mentioned in various

folkloric accounts among Eastern and Southern Slavs (Gardela and

Duma 2013: 320-321).

A child grave from Cielmice, dating to the second half of

the 13th century, is in a tightly contracted position of child’s

body, implying that the limbs were tied at the time of interment.

However, an alternative interpretation is that this position is

meant to by symbolic of the “child returning to the womb of the

earth” in its fetal position (Gardela and Duma 2013:321). A grave

from Stradow, dated the 11th to 12th century, of another extremely

contracted child skeleton in addition to having its head cut off.

The grave also had a wide range of grave goods, such as an iron

knife placed by the knee, a bead, and a shell (Gardela and Duma

2013:321). Child graves in Byczyna have stones on the necks of

the skeletons, exactly like the Drascow vampire except for the

difference in age (Gardela and Duma 2013:322).

There are a number of reasons why a child might be

stigmatized and believed to become a vampire, similar to the why

the man from Lesbos might have had such postmortem treatment.

Folklore indicates that if a mother falls asleep after giving

birth, the devil has the opportunity to swap the child with an

evil “changeling” child that was constantly hungry, sickly, and

harmful to everyone. These children were said to be characterized

by physical features too, such as large heads, large eyes, or if

the baby was born with teeth. Many children with various physical

or mental impairments were likely killed by their parents since

the custom was to beat the “changeling” in the hopes that the

“stolen” child would be returned (Gardela and Duma 2013:326).

Widespread belief in medieval Europe of the dead coming back

can be demonstrated by an Icelandic tale of a corpse that wanders

around the village terrifying the locales until the body was

beheaded and the head placed between the knees (Farrell 2012:58).

According to Scandinavian contexts, the placing of stones is used

not only to render a corpse “safe” but to lay to rest the ghost

of criminals or those who may have some grievance against the

living (Farrell 2012:62). The relationship of the living to the

dead was always ambivalent in Scandinavian folktales, ranging

from concern to fear, which manifests in stories about how to

bind the dead to the grave either by magic or mechanical means

(Kvideland 1988: 101). The Scandinavian vampire/revenant creature

is often referred to as a draugr, although more recently it is

used to reference unidentified persons who have drowned at sea

(Kvideland 1988:267).

Unusual approaches to the dead are found in the

Islendingasogur, Fornaldarsogur, Konungasogur and Eddic poetry as

well as the Eyrbyggja saga. The “bad deaths” recounted in Old

Norse are those in which a person passes away in anger or

unexpectedly in bed, and the unfinished business that results

from these kinds of deaths leads to the fear that they will

return as animated corpses and so measures are undertaken to

prevent such hauntings (Gardela 2013:100-101). Apotropaic

procedures include approaching the body, often from behind or

perhaps by walking backwards so as to avoid the “evil eye”, and

to be sure to close the eyes and other orifices of the deceased.

The sagas instruct that one of the house’s walls should be

destroyed to carry the body out rather than through the door.

This way, the dead would not be able to remember the way back to

the house to haunt the living (Gardela 2013: 103-104).

Interpreting acts of funerary violence as clear acts of

contempt for the dead cannot be assumed, as Viking-age funerals

also regarded it as an act of utmost respect and affection

(Gardela 2013: 107). Viking-Age Langeland, Denmark cemetery has a

couple of examples of possible vampire burials. A woman, lying in

supine position in a wooden coffin, with hands on the pelvis and

a knife placed horizontally on her right arm. Her skull was lying

on the woman’s left, close to her knee, and the jawbone appears

to have been detached and broken in half. Additional grave goods

included a small shell and two glass beads; the alignment of the

items and the skeletal remains suggests it was disturbed after

burial possibly by people who believed she was one of the

restless dead and responsible for some misfortune (Gardela

2013:114).

Grave P from Bogovei, the same Denmark cemetery as the

previous example, is of an adult man buried in a prone position

and covered with two stones, the larger on the pelvis and the

smaller on his left arm. There were no grave artifacts except an

iron knife, which was struck in the ground by the man’s right

foot (Gardela 2013: 115). Vertically set weapons are usually

interpreted as an apotropaic ritual, but may also have been

connected with dedication to Odin (Gardela 2013: 115). Prone

burials also relate to the prevalent fear of the evil eye in the

Norse community as well as among the Slavs, with the idea that

placing the body facedown would cause the vampire to dig its way

down rather than up towards the surface (Gardela 2013:116).

Another Viking vampire grave is found in Zealand, Denmark at

the cemetery of Trekroner-Grydehoj. An adult woman is at the

bottom of a pit, her body partly covered with that of a horse and

by her feet was a dog that had been cut in half. A range of

objects were also found in this pit, with a chest, a bucket, and

an unusual bronze item with an iron tip that may possibly be some

kind of a magic staff. These artifacts and animal sacrifices

could be seen as an act of respect, but then everything was

destroyed when the pit was covered by stones of varying size,

with the largest placed directly over the woman’s head.

Everything was then covered with a layer of soil (Gardela 2013:

118).

Stoned graves and other forms of vampire graves are also

seen in Romano-British and Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the third to

seventh centuries have been discovered. These graves are prone

burials, likely with the same intention as the Scandinavian

accounts. British graves also hold decapitated skeletons with the

skulls usually lodged between the legs or feet (Jenkins 2010:

197). Another British vampire was discovered in 1959, and then

recently rediscovered in Southwell, Nottinghamshire. The

skeleton was buried with metal spikes through the shoulders,

heart area, and ankles (Lorenzi 2012). The skeleton couldn’t be

excavated at the time of its original discovery as it lay outside

the trench the archaeologist had been excavating. Pottery finds

in the immediate area of the burial date the grave to 550AD.

This practice fits with widespread examples of Anglo-Saxon

deviant burials, although it is rare in later cemeteries cited

from 700 AD onwards, which proved an end date for the range of

this individual (Beresford 2012).

This vampire burial is not the last example to be found in

Southwell. In 1822, Henry Standley was found guilty of the murder

of John Dale and committed suicide in his cell by hanging. His

body was reported as having been buried at a crossroads and had

the same stake used in the murder driven though his body

(Beresford 2012). Until 1823, those who committed suicide in

Britain were denied burial in consecrated ground, and were

commonly interred by the public roadways or at crossroads. In

some cases, a wooden stake was driven through their bodies. This

was banned by an Act of Parliament of the same year, which

allowed suicides to be interred in a proper burial ground, but

between 9 and 12 at night and without religious rites, although

these limitations were later removed in 1882 (Tsaliki 2008: 7).

America also has its share of vampire stories and vampire

burials. Vampire beliefs and activities in 18th and 19th century

New England are found in southern and western Rhode Island,

central-southern Vermont, southeastern Massachusetts and eastern

Connecticut, ranging from the late 1700s to the late 1800s

(Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). The superstition was likely

brought over by the Slavic and German immigrants who settled in

this area in the 1700s, perhaps when the Palatine Germans

colonized Pennsylvania or when Hessian mercenaries served in the

Revolutionary War (Tucker Oct.2012). The first known reference

to an American vampire is in a letter to the editor of the

Connecticut Courant and Weekly Intelligencer published June 1784

which warned families to beware of a foreign doctor who had been

urging families to dig up and burn dead relatives to stop

consumption (Tucker Oct.2012).

Vampire scares usually began when a person died of a

contagious disease, as in other parts of the world, although it

was almost always because of consumption, otherwise known as

tuberculosis. People were convinced that one of those who had

died earlier was a vampire that was coming back to attack the

living, usually starting with his or her family (Tucker Sept.

2012). Consumption didn’t kill quickly like cholera or the

bubonic plague. Instead it took a slower course as it “consumed”

its victims, leading it to be considered the archetypal “wasting

disease” as it drained all vitality from a person. It could be a

matter of years before the victim dies, although if it was the

“galloping consumption” which would have been for a long time

asymptomatic, then death would only be a question of months

(Jenkins 2010: 89-90).

Well known examples of American vampires are those of the

Ray family of Jewett City, Connecticut in 1854 and of Mercy Lena

Brown in 1892. In the May 20, 1854 issue of the

Norwich(Connecticut) Courier describes the story of Horace Ray

who had died of consumption and was later followed by three of

his sons. After the third son died, it was determined that the

bodies of the two brothers should be exhumed and burned because

one or both of them were feeding upon the living (Sledzik and

Bellantoni 1994). Similarly, Mercy Lena Brown followed her mother

and sister in falling victim to consumption, although several

years later. When her brother, who had left for Colorado’s

climate when he had earlier fell ill, returned and had a relapse,

it was perceived by the town as evidence that one of his

relatives must have been preying upon him. The people were given

reluctant permission by the father of the family to exhume Mercy

and her mother and sister; Mercy’s mother and sister had

decomposed by this point into skeletons, but since Mercy had died

during the winter, her body had been preserved by the freezing

cold as it was stored in the mausoleum. This lack of decay, in

addition to the blood seen at her mouth, was taken as indicators

of her being a vampire and so her heart and liver were removed

and burned. The ashes were then ingested by her brother who died

4 months later (Jenkins 2010: 125-126).

The case of “JB-55” is another of these New England

vampires, and this skeleton stands out from the rest of them in

his highly emphasized treatment. The skeleton of a 50-55-year-old

man in a stone lined grave was discovered in the 18th -19th

century Walton Cemetery of Griswold Connecticut. The skull and

femora of this man were arranged in a “skull and crossbones”

orientation on top of his ribs and vertebrae, which were also

found in disarray (Sledzik and Bellantoni 1994). Taphonomically,

the physical arrangement of the skeletal remains in the grave

indicates that no soft tissue had been present at the time of

rearrangement. This means that when the townspeople exhumed him,

there was no heart left for them to burn to get rid of their

vampire. The archaeologists who worked on this site hypothesize

that in the absence of a key element of their apotropaic remedy,

the bones were placed in this arrangement as a way to make sure

that he remains in his grave whether or not a vampire (Sledzik

and Bellantoni 1994).

Pathological conditions are present on this individual, as

seen by the presence of periostatic lesions on the left second,

third, and fourth ribs of a whitish-gray color and pitted in

appearance. They are located on the visceral rib surface near the

rib head, which is similar to those associated with primary

pulmonary tuberculosis. While the exact illness is unknown, it

was clearly chronic enough to induce these lesions and likely

included symptoms that would have been interpreted as consumption

by 19th century rural New Englanders (Sledzik and Bellantoni

1994). However, there was a several year gap between the time he

had died from whatever pulmonary illness he had and the time of

the rearrangement of his bones. It is likely a situation where

someone remembered that this man had been ill which led to him

being singled out. The fact that there were none of the

indicators of a vampire present on him, despite a rigorous search

as the chest bones in such a disarray would indicate, the people

still considered him to be the vampire.

“JB” was a case of people finding a vampire simply by the

determination of their looking. Deviant burial treatment of such

individuals has its own pattern outside the norms of typical

burials that may or may not surround the body. The fear of these

creatures has caused special attention, time and effort to be put

into these burials. Vampire burials are examples of the deviant

burial that at some level, due to the similarities of ideas

across time and region and despite the variation that may be

observed, can be considered to be a distinct mortuary practice of

its own.

:

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