Ancient bodies of ‘vampires’ were buried with rocks in their mouths to stop them returning from the dead

Two examples of burials were a rock or a brick was placed in the deceased’s mouth. David Pickel/Stanford University/Insider; REUTERS/Handout/Insider

Archeologists recently uncovered an example of a “vampire” burial in Poland with a sickle around the body’s neck to keep it from rising from the grave.

But there are other ways humans prevented the undead “vampires” from tormenting the living, one of which was placing a rock or brick in their mouth, experts told Insider.

Here are two examples of such burials uncovered by archeologists and what they mean according to experts.

A stone to stop the Nachzehrer “vampire”

The skill of a woman found in a 16th century mass grave in Venice had a brick placed in her mouth to prevent her feasting on plague victims. REUTERS/Handout/Insider

In this case, a woman’s body was uncovered in a 16th-century grave in Lazzaretto Nuovo, about 2 miles from Venice, Italy.

The woman, nicknamed “Carmilla” by the scientists who uncovered her, was found with a brick in her mouth inside a mass grave, a bizarre ritual unlike other burials at the time.

Not much is known about her identity in life, but archeologists know she died during a deadly outbreak of bubonic plague.

“I had to find an explanation for someone actually manipulating the body of a person with a deadly disease,” Matteo Borrini, principal lecturer of forensic anthropology at the Liverpool John Moore University, told Insider.

Borrini was the lead scientist on the dig. He conducted a careful forensic examination to understand what happened.

A 3D model of the woman’s remans is shown overlaid on a picture of the remains in the mass grave. REUTERS/Han

He discovered the woman was probably thought to be a Nachzehrer, a type of vampire in old European folklore.

“It’s not the classical idea that the vampire is going out and sucking the blood of people. It’s more someone that is killing people from the grave before being able to then rise as a full vampire,” he said.

“What I found was that there was this tradition that said there were bodies people believed were responsible for spreading the plague around. These body were not completely dead and were captured by some demonic influence,” said Borrini, describing the old beliefs.

My kids have my maiden name as middle names. I wanted their names to honor my family legacy, not just their father’s.

“And they were chewing their shroud inside their graves and spreading the plague in a sort of black magical way,” he said.

A forensic reconstruction of what the woman, nicknamed “Carmilla” by the scientists, might have look like. Dr Matteo Borrini – Liverpool John Moores University

Placing a brick in her mouth would, per these beliefs, keep the Nachzehrer from chewing their way out, and so protect the living from the disease.

Carmilla wouldn’t have been considered a vampire during her lifetime, however. Borrini’s work showed that the mass grave was reopened after Carmilla was buried. At that point, her body, which was still wrapped in a shroud, was likely not completely decomposed.

Grave diggers, confronted with this body seemingly still fresh with the shroud decomposed around the mouth, may have assumed the body was possessed and placed the brick there.

A stone to keep the soul from spreading disease

The body of a child found in a 5th century Roman cemetery, buried with a stone it the mouth. David Pickel/Stanford University/Insider

Researchers at the University of Arizona and Stanford University found another example of a “vampire.” This one was buried in a child cemetery on the site of the Poggio Gramignano ancient Roman villa in Teverina, Italy.

The child, who was about 10 years old, was buried in the 5th century during a deadly outbreak of malaria. A stone was also placed in the child’s mouth.

The child’s body was found laying on the side. David Pickel/Stanford University

Jordan Wilson, the lead bioarchaeologist for the Villa Romana di Poggio Gramignano archeological project, told Insider the stone was likely there to keep the child’s soul from coming in or out of the body.

“There’s a very ancient idea of breath being linked to life and the soul, and the mouth in particular as being sort of the portal through which the soul exits after death,” she said.

The stone may have been a way to keep the child’s body or spirit from spreading the disease or generally tormenting the living. It may also have been a way to keep the child safe from witches, which were thought to be able to raise children from the dead and use their souls.