‘Vampire’ skeleton found entombed in Bulgaria
08/06/2012
Evidence that funerary rites have evolved considerably over the past several centuries was made unmistakably clear last month when a “vampire-proof” skeleton was found in Bulgaria.
Found entombed among church ruins in the Black Sea town of Sozopol was a 700-year-old skeleton that had been stabbed in the chest with an iron rod and had also had its teeth pulled.
“Scholars believe the rod and tooth-pulling were techniques villagers used to prevent dead men from turning into vampires,” according to National Geographic.
The iron rod, which was in the tomb next to the body, is visible in the above photo.
The idea of vampires dates back far before Bram Stoker’s famous 1897 horror novel Dracula.
In fact, vampire myths go back millennia around the world, particularly in countries across Europe.
“In graves thousands of years old, skeletons have been found staked, tied up, buried facedown, decapitated … all well-attested ways of preempting the [attacks] of wandering corpses,” wrote former National Geographic historian Mark Collins Jenkins in his book Vampire Forensics.
(HT: A Blog About History)
08/06/2012 at 1:40 pm
Yeah, vampire myths have been around a long time. That’s why some people even go so far as to posit their actual existence. But I’m not buying it.
08/07/2012 at 11:25 am
I’m with you – there’s plenty of myths that have been around a long time, but that doesn’t mean there’s any truth to them.