A Woman Buried in a Medieval Cemetery Exhibits Chilling Signs of a Terrifying Truth.
According to News, on Halloween, archaeologists unveiled new details about how a “true vampire” experienced the final moments of her life. The woman, dubbed a “vampire,” passed away approximately 350 years ago and was discovered in 2022 at an ancient cemetery in Pień, Poland.
The remains of the woman have been named Zosia by researchers. Reconstruction images reveal that this 18-year-old girl had fair skin, blue eyes, short hair, and a protruding canine tooth. She was also buried with a silk cap, a sign of noble status.
New illustrations of Zosia’s appearance show her with pale skin, blue eyes, and short hair. (Photo: Miroslaw Blicharski).
However, her high status could not save her from being accused of being a demon. Among approximately 100 skeletons in the cemetery, only Zosia had a sickle placed across her neck and a heavy padlock on her toe.
Professor Dariusz Polinski, who leads the research, shared with the Daily Mail: “It can be assumed that for some reason, the people who buried her feared she would rise from the grave. Perhaps they believed she was a vampire.”
Experts believe that the sickle and heavy lock were a form of “double protection” for the villagers, guarding against the possibility of the corpse rising from the grave. The sickle would decapitate or injure her neck if she attempted to sit up.
X-ray scans of Zosia’s bones, conducted by Dr. Heather Edgar from the University of New Mexico, revealed an abnormality in her sternum, suggesting she may have had a painful deformity, which could have led to her being viewed as “wicked” and suspected of being a vampire.
New details have emerged about the skeleton. (Photo: Miroslaw Blicharski).
At that time, a war was ongoing between Sweden and Poland, and researchers believe that Zosia may have been Swedish and considered unfortunate.
About 30 of the 100 graves found showed signs of being bound, leading to the site being referred to as “Vampire Field.” Polinski noted that this cemetery was reserved for individuals “excluded from the community,” and all graves lacked headstones or records of identity.
Smithsonian magazine reported that Eastern Europeans began to fear vampires in the 11th century, believing that “some dead would claw their way out of the ground to rise as blood-sucking beings that terrified the living.”
By the 17th century, “unusual burial rituals became widespread throughout Poland to deal with reports of vampire sightings,” according to Science Alert.
