A Decapitated Medieval Vampire Child Was Uncovered In Poland, And The Area’s Not Associated With Any Known Cemeteries
During the removal of tree roots for an ongoing renovation project, workers stumbled upon the skeletal remains of two medieval children in northwestern Poland. One of the burials showed signs of anti-vampire measures being taken.
According to the Lublin Provincial Conservator of Monuments, the graves were found at a site on Góra Chełmska, which is located near Koszalin.
The skeletons were buried in pits without coffins. They laid on their backs, with their skulls facing west.
Based on the sediment layers and pottery fragments within the burials, the skeletons dated back to the 13th century.
The graves were discovered in an area that was not associated with any of the known cemeteries on Chełmska, which was unexpected. But the biggest surprise was that one of them displayed evidence of a vampire burial.
A “vampire” burial is categorized under “revenant” graves. The term revenant refers to someone who comes back from the dead as a reanimated corpse or spirit to terrorize the living. Throughout the Middle Ages, local folk beliefs in vampirism spurred these types of burial customs.
Revenant graves from thousands of years ago have been found across Europe, particularly in Eastern European regions like modern-day Poland.
A number of these burials contained the bodies of suspected vampires, and the living took certain precautions to make sure the dead could not come back to haunt them.
They resorted to measures such as weighing down the deceased with large stones or piercing the bodies with a stake to pin them to the ground.
shaiith – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
In this case, similar vampire prevention tactics were put into practice. One of the children from the recently discovered graves had their head removed from their torso.
After the corpse was beheaded, the severed head was laid face-down in the grave. Heavy stones were placed on the torso. As evidenced by preserved postholes, the burial was probably marked by two pillars.
“Burying with the face to the ground, cutting off the head or pressing the body with a stone are among the methods used to prevent a person believed to be a demonic being from leaving the grave,” said the conservator.
Both burials were located in gypsum soil, which was a common tradition for the era. However, the graves lacked coffins and funerary items, indicating that local residents might have used the area for undocumented burials for some period of time.
Many so-called cases of vampirism or demonic possession during medieval times were actually caused by health issues or psychological conditions.
Examinations of bodies from the 18th century have revealed that some accused vampires were just victims of tuberculosis.
The remains of the children were excavated from the graves and will be analyzed for further information, including their age, gender, and cause of death.
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