400-year-old 'vampire' grave in Poland reveals non-existent genetic lineage

Archaeologists excavated a 400-year-old grave in Poland, which revealed a burial unlike any they had seen. The discovery was made in 2022 and was recently described in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports by a team of Polish researchers. The grave had the remains of a woman positioned strangely, a sickle pointed at her throat, and an iron padlock on her left toe. She was supposedly linked to ill luck and calamities by the community, who feared she could return as a vampire.

Researchers from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University dug up the grave and came across an unexpected scene. The skeleton in it belonged to a woman and was interred with booby traps, supposedly to stop her from coming back as a vampire. She lived in the 17th century in Pień, about 96 kilometres from Kraków. She died sometime between 1620 and 1674 CE at the age of 17 to 19.

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Grave where body was removed and placed again with lock and sickle

Archaeologists noticed that the soil was in a disrupted state, indicating that the grave was dug up before the body decomposed fully. Its position was then rearranged, with her arm towards the northeast. An iron sickle was put across her neck with the blade covering her throat and an iron padlock on her left toe. The researchers connected the sickle and lock to folk stories about supernatural or demonic forces.

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In the 17th century, Polish-Lithuanian communities blamed those who had recently died for diseases and famines. They believed the woman in the grave was seen as the reason for some incident, and so they tried to stop her from being reborn. But she likely belonged to a wealthy family, as thin metallic threads composed of gilded gold and silver wires were found near the skull. However, her nitrogen and carbon levels indicate she was malnourished.

A green stain on her neck and palate bones shows that some kind of object was placed in her mouth or nasal cavity around the time she died. Besides the padlock and sickle, her DNA analysis showed that her maternal lineage was rare and is almost non-existent in more modern Slavic regions. The findings show that 17th-century Poland was not untouched by faith and superstition.