The skeleton of a female "vampire," buried with a sickle across her neck and a padlock on her foot, has been discovered at a cemetery in Poland.
The 17th-century grave was found in late August by a team of archaeologists from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, a city in north central Poland.
Professor Dariusz Polinski, leader of the excavations, told the Daily Mail that a sickle was placed across the woman's throat and her toe was placed in a padlock to "prevent her returning from the dead."
"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," he said.
Polinski also explained the padlock, saying it symbolized "the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning."
The burial reveals a certain paranoia over the dead coming back to life. Magdalena Zagrodzka, a representative of the research team, told Polish Press Agency PAP that the sickle and padlock "may have protected against the return of the deceased, which was probably feared. In this context, these practices can be considered so-called anti-vampiric," CBS News reported.
Stacey Abbott, author of "Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century," told The Washington Post that accusations of vampirism were common across Europe during the 17th-century. Charges of being vampires were often made against people who "didn't fit in," Abbott said, and the woman could have been singled out for her gender, a physical deformity or any social anomaly considered "immoral."
Researchers noted, however, that the woman was also wearing a silk cap woven with silver or gold thread, indicating she was of high social status.
"She was neither ritually murdered nor was she one of the convicted in a witchcraft trial. Those individuals were treated in a different way and, usually, they were thrown into provisional graves," Polinski told Newsweek. "It is possible that in her lifetime the woman experienced a tragedy and was harmed. On the other hand, her appearance or behavior might have provoked the contemporary residents to be afraid of her, but this may only be proved by more research on the skeleton."
Researchers plan to conduct DNA testing on the remains to learn more about the woman.
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