"Vampire Graves" Unearthed in Poland

Scientists have unearthed  200 years old remains of six people, believed to be vampires, in a Polish graveyard.

The scientists were astonished to see the measures that people during that era took to keep the dead buried. Some of the skeletons were barricaded in the earth with sharp sickles, while some were weighted by stones on their necks, maybe to prevent them from chewing through their burial shrouds.

The Polish "vampires" include one toothless middle-aged woman, a 12-year-old child whose sex has not been determined as yet and a maiden possibly in her late teens who wore her hair in a crown of braids atop her head.

One of the "vampires" had a sickle curving around her abdomen and also had a large rock on her neck, Times Live reports.  

"The rusty red colour began to darken around the pelvis in a distinct crescent-moon shape," Amy Scott of the University of Manitoba recalled, while describing one skeleton to USA Today.  

The researchers revealed that according to their study, none of the six bodies had been suffering from any disease or trauma. Their teeth further suggested that they were from the area. So, there must be some reason behind them being singled out.

The researchers said that one possible explanation could be that they might have violated some rules set by the society at that point of time.

Talking about vampires, bioarchaeologist Tracy Betsinger of SUNY College at Oneonta who is a co-author of two new studies of the burials said: "They're not ... pretty and sexy and charismatic. These are evil spirits that re-animate a corpse."

She further said: "Do I actually believe that the dead come back? No." But, she insisted that the people dwelling near the vampires' cemetery "very much believed in the reality of vampires. ... (The graves) tell you how seriously this was taken."