'Vampire' graves in Poland where skeletons were buried with skulls between their legs
● Archaeologists have unearthed what they believe to be a vampire burial ground on a building site in Poland. The team of historians discovered graves containing four skeletons with their heads removed and placed between their legs near the southern town of Gliwice. Decapitating a suspected vampire was common practice in medieval times because it was thought to be the only way to ensure the dead stay dead.
● The exact fate of the skeletons is yet unclear, but the archaeologists noted that, apart from being headless, there was no trace of any earthly possessions, such as jewellery, belts or buckles. 'It's very difficult to tell when these burials were carried out,' archaeologist Dr Jacek Pierzak told the Dziennik Zachodni newspaper. The remains have been sent for further testing but initial estimations suggest they died sometime around the 16th century.
● It comes a year after archaeologists in Bulgaria claimed to have discovered two ‘vampire’ corpses in excavations near a monastery in the Black Sea town of Sozopol, both more than 800 years old and pierced through the chest with heavy iron rods. Bulgaria’s national museum chief Bozidhar Dimitrov said as many as 100 such ‘vampire corpses’ have been found in the country in recent years. ‘They illustrate a practice which was common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the 20th century,’ he explained.