Workers horrified as 450 headless ‘vampire' skeletons found while digging up road Story by Emily Braeger • 10 June 2023
A mass grave packed with hundreds of suspected vampires has been discovered by workers digging up a road in Poland.
Roadworkers made the grim and mysterious discovery in the small town of Luzino, in the northeast, many of which had been found decapitated and posed in strange positions.
Bizarrely, some were found with their skulls placed between their legs and a coin in their mouths - a practice that was common in the region during the 19th century and was believed to remove the 'vampire curse'.
Archaeologist Maciej Stromski said: "We discovered examples of belief in the dead returning from the grave, which could only be stopped by decapitation.
"It was believed that if a member of the deceased's family died shortly after the funeral, then he or she could be a vampire.
"Therefore, after burial, the grave was dug up and the deceased's head was cut off, which was then placed in the legs.
"We also discovered an example of a woman after decapitation. The skull of a child was laid on her bosom."
He added that in around 30 percent of the graves uncovered, researchers had also found bricks placed next to the skeletons' legs, arms, and heads.
Just last year, a woman who had been suspected of vampirism was discovered with a sickle pinning her throat to the ground and a padlock on the toe of her left foot at a village cemetery in Pien, in south- eastern Poland.
Nicolaus Copernicus University Professor Dariusz Poliski explained that, based on how the body and sickle were positioned, the intent was likely to decapitate the woman if she tried to rise from the grave to terrorize the living.
Poliski previously told Daily Mail: "The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured."
Records of undead myths in Eastern Europe date back as far as the 11th century, but in some regions, the myths were so widely believed that they caused hysteria among the people. This led to many accusations of vampirism against those who died in an untimely fashion - particularly by suicide.
This hysteria became so prominent that by the end of the 17th century, all across Poland, odd burial practices were being put into place in response to an "outbreak" of vampires, with many bodies being mutilated posthumously.
Poliski added: "Other ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone."
Curiously, the female vampire discovered by the team from Nicolaus Copernicus University also had a silk hat on her head - a luxury commodity in the 17th century. It indicates that she likely had a high social status in her community.
Grave sites like the one in Luzino, where a metal road - or a stake - has been hammered through the skull of the deceased - aren't uncommon. People at the time believed this was one way of ensuring the person stayed dead.
In general, people believe the history of Bram Stoker's famous novel Dracula is an open and shut case, beginning and ending with Vlad Tepes the Impaler.
But there may be more to the story than meets the eye as it has been said that Stoker also used other vampires and Polish tales as a basis for Dracula.
Poster Comment:
It sounds like the Immortal gone berserk.