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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