Vampire burial site found in Poland
When a person’s teeth are removed, a stake is placed through their body and a rock shard is planted within the mouth before burial, you’ve got to wonder what or who was being laid to rest. Could this be the long, lost cousin of Vlad the Impaler? Or a serious historical account of the handling of feared blood-thirsty criminals of the past?
In the small town of Poland’s Kamień Pomorski earlier this month, a modern day vampire hunter found what appeared to be a vampire grave. Forget the decaying roses and treasured trinkets normally found within caskets because this person — or creature — was given a full, vampire burial.
But this unusual gravesite is not the first suspected vampiric resting place to be found in the area.
“Last July, archaeologists uncovered four decapitated skeletons, their heads placed between their legs, at a construction site in Gliwice, southern Poland,” CNN reports. “The burials may sound gruesome, but they are befitting of early medieval Polish folklore’s particularly grisly interpretation of the vampire myth.”
Traditionally, vampires of literature and history are characterized as pallid-faced, nocturnal creatures with an aptitude for exsanguination; though modern versions may include a tube of glitter and sappy teen-romance.
According to a professor for the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London, Titus Hjelm, “Specific to Polish vampires is that they are known for eating their own flesh and burial garments when they rise from the dead.” This could explain the stone in the mouth and teeth-removal.
Hjelm said the Polish believed vampires were born, rather than made, further stigmatizing the vampire legends.
However, others have not been so easily swayed and believe these unconventional burial techniques are nothing more than criminal graves, designed to punish wrongdoers after death.
Legendary or historic, these mysterious burial sites continue to be uncovered throughout Poland and can be attributed to life and times of medieval Polish belief and rituals of the 16th century.
