Grave containing 450 headless 'vampires' discovered during roadworks

A mass grave has been discovered in Poland whilst workers were doing some road maintenance, and some have suggested that the skeletons could be ‘vampires’.

You see, there used to be a lot of superstition and worry over whether people could come back to life after they were dead, and some of the large number of skeletons discovered at this site bear the hallmarks of people trying to break a ‘vampire curse’.

That means some are decapitated, others have been arranged in strange positions, and some have coins in their mouth with skulls between their legs.

Some of these things were believed to ward off the return of the dead in 18^th century Eastern Europe.

These sorts of traditions were by no means limited to that part of the world though, in fact every culture seems to have something like this.

UG Luzino

The 450 skeletons were discovered in Luzino, in the north east of Poland, by workers digging on a road.

Now, they’re under the watchful eyes of the archaeologists, who are, naturally, very interested in what is going on beneath the earth in this particular location.

One of those archaeologists who has been called in to examine the bones is Maciej Stromski, who said: "We discovered examples of belief in the dead returning from the grave, which could only be stopped by decapitation.

"It was believed that if a member of the deceased's family died shortly after the funeral, then he or she could be a vampire.

"Therefore, after burial, the grave was dug up and the deceased's head was cut off, which was then placed in the legs.

"We also discovered an example of a woman after decapitation.

"The skull of a child was laid on her bosom."

According to reports from MailOnline, around a third of the skeletons discovered have bricks placed near their arms, legs, and heads.

This latest find comes after a woman was discovered with a sickle pinning her to the ground by the throat in a 17^th century graveyard in Pień.

UG Luzino

She is believed to have been suspected of vampirism.

As well as the sickle, the woman had a padlocked toe, which is thought to have been another way of attempting to keep people from coming back to life after death.

In the case of this woman, she also had a silk cap on her head, suggesting that she was a noble woman, as well as a suspected vampire.

At other sites, not just in Poland, skulls have been found with a metal rod hammered through them, which is supposed to completely and utterly ensure that the dead stay dead and don’t come back to life.