Trivia | What can you use to ward off vampires? Garlic?

What to use to ward off vampires, garlic?

Written by | Li Zi

Proofreading | clefable

In a small village called Pień in Poland, archaeologists discovered a special tomb.

The tomb contained a young woman who lived in the 17th century and died between the ages of 17 and 21. The way the woman was buried caught the scientists' attention: a sickle was placed around her neck.

This sickle is obviously not a common configuration in tombs, but more like a means of "anti-vampire". Dariusz Poliński, a professor at the Institute of Archaeology at the Copernicus University in Poland, believes that the reason why the person who buried the dead made such an arrangement was probably to prevent her from resurrecting from the tomb.

The dead have their own world, and after death they should stay there and not come back - this is probably what people thought at the time. Her family and fellow villagers probably believed that if the woman suddenly woke up as a vampire after death, the sickle on her neck could directly chop off her head, or at least injure her.

In addition to the sickle, a padlock was also put on the big toe of the deceased's left foot, which can be regarded as double protection. But the question is, why are people so worried that she will be resurrected?

Suspected dead person

Archaeologists have been observing the 17th-century cemetery in the village of Pine for more than a decade, and many of the bodies found there were dressed in fine clothes or inlaid with gems, which means that many of the people buried there belonged to the elite class.

Scientists believe that the woman discovered this time also came from a family with a relatively high social status. There are remnants of silk fabric worn on her head in her tomb. Researchers think it is likely a silk hat and speculate that the woman was of extraordinary origin.

In addition, scholars also found a clear "pillow" outline under the head of the deceased, which made archaeologists feel that the woman was not buried hastily, but should have been buried lying on the pillow in the coffin for a delicate funeral.

In order to learn more about the deceased, scientists from the Institute of Biology at the Nicolaus Copernicus University carefully analyzed the skeleton. They found that the epiphysis had not yet completely fused with the backbone, which means that the deceased was still very young when she died. When observing the skull, the researchers also noticed that the cartilage fusion (spheno-occipital synchondrosis) between the sphenoid bone and the occipital bone of the deceased had closed, so they believed that she was an adult from a biological perspective.

At this point, scientists have a general image of this woman in their minds: a girl from a wealthy family who died just after adulthood. If this young person died, people around her suspected that she had the ability to return to the world as a vampire, why did they have such a suspicion? Archaeologists speculate that she was isolated during her lifetime.

Professor Polinsky said that if a person is isolated when alive, her death may make those around her uneasy. People will think: What will happen next? Will she come back for revenge? Setting up those special props at the funeral may also be to prevent the deceased from returning to the world and causing harm to the living.

If the sickle around the neck means to attack the deceased immediately when he wakes up, then the padlock on the big toe of the left foot, archaeologists explain, may symbolize locking the passage of the deceased back to this world, preventing people from the two worlds from having contact again.

If, as the archaeologists say, people feared the supernatural powers that emerged after the woman's death and took precautions, it might be because she was isolated during her lifetime. So why was she isolated? The real reason is difficult to determine, but researchers realized that the deceased had a large and protruding tooth, and her special appearance might have made her disliked by the people around her.

Isolated individuals are usually different from most people. A special appearance is only one possibility. A special personality, special occupation, physical injury or mental disorder may also make a person be ignored by the entire community.

Professor Stacey Abbott of the University of Roehampton in the UK said that people's fear of vampires often stems from someone being different. In those days, vampire accusations were not uncommon throughout Europe. If a person did not fit in with the surroundings, he or she might be accused. This is similar to the witch trials. In some crazy historical periods, women who did not get married or did not menstruate were at risk of being accused of being witches and executed.

Of course, the state of the remains suggests that the young woman was not executed: her head was not chopped off, and her spine was intact. Also, the location of the grave suggests that she was probably not accused of being a vampire: she was buried in the sacred cemetery in the village of Pine, which would not have been accessible to executed criminals.

The "anti-vampire" measures people implemented at her funeral did not mean that she was considered a vampire during her lifetime. It was just that she might have been isolated again after her death.

What if the dead return?

Placing a sickle around the neck of the deceased may be a very rare operation, but people’s fear of the return of the dead and attempts to prevent the return of the dead are not uncommon.

For example, the Nachzehrer is a type of vampire from German folklore, or a person who "lives" after death. They are said to eat the shroud, eat their own corpse, and attack surviving family members and acquaintances in the village. Importantly, this vampire does not need to wait until he crawls out of the grave, but can stay where he is to absorb the life force of the living.

In folk cultures of other regions, vampires do not all have the terrifying skill of remotely absorbing nutrients from the human body. However, the fear of the dead resurrecting and harming the living may not be reduced in the slightest. To avoid such incidents, some people will chop off the head or legs of the dead, some choose to burn the body, and some people smash the body with stones... However, there are also some slightly milder methods.

Archaeologists once found a dead person in a mass grave in Venice, Italy. She was from the 16th century and died of plague. A brick was stuffed in her mouth. Some researchers believe that in the era when the Black Death was raging in Europe, the legend of vampires was very popular. People at that time did not know much about infectious diseases and thought that vampires could spread diseases. Putting bricks in the mouths of the dead may also be a fear that they would turn into vampires and feed on living people, bringing plague to more people (this explanation is controversial).

Similar to this example, there is a grave of a 10-year-old boy in a children's cemetery in Teverina, Italy. He died during a malaria outbreak in the 5th century AD with a stone in his mouth. Some researchers mentioned that an ancient concept would link breathing with the soul, and the mouth is the channel for the soul to leave the body. People put stones in the mouth of the dead child, perhaps to prevent the soul from leaving his body and thus prevent the spread of disease.

In addition, it was once a widespread custom to put coins in the mouth of the deceased before burial. In the old days, people believed that this would light the way ahead and prevent vampires or other dead spirits from returning to the world. Perhaps you still remember that in the cemetery of the village of Pyőn (Poland), where many elites were buried, archaeologists once found three dead people with coins in their mouths, two of them were children and one was a teenager.

The young woman with the sickle on her neck in the same cemetery was also found to have green spots in her mouth, most likely the result of contact with copper or copper alloy products. If this is also a coin and was placed in the woman's mouth after her death, then it can be said that she has a triple protection against vampires.

But maybe, she doesn't want to come back at all?

Reference Links:

https://portal.umk.pl/en/article/keep-demons-in-the-grave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U96lgMFFf24

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/07/poland-vampire-grave-unearthed-sickle/

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1556-4029.2010.01525.x

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-vampire/vampire-unearthed-in-venice-plague-grave-idUSTRE52B4RU20090312

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/808985

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0113564