“Vampire” Skull Found (Photos)

Posted on March 10, 2009

Italian archeologists have uncovered what they are referring to as a “vampire” skull. Read more on the vampire skull below.

This awesome discovery was made after an ancient graveyard for victims of Black Death was uncovered.

During the Black Death period in the Middle Ages the cemetery was the final resting place for more than 1,500 corpses, and dozens of well preserved remains have been found.

This “vampire” discovery is the first of its kind at Lazzaretto Vecchio, the island used to quarantine and bury plague victims.

Dr Matteo Borrini, an anthropological archaeologist of Florence University, said the woman’s skull had been impaled through the mouth with a brick – a traditional method of ensuring the “undead” could no longer feed. Dr Borrini said there was a widespread belief that the plague was spread by female vampires.

He explained: “This idea probably originated from the dribble of blood that often came from the mouths of plague victims when they died.”

The partial body and skull of the woman showed her jaw forced open by a brick, which was an exorcism technique used on suspected vampires.

“I was lucky. I [didn't] expect to find a vampire during my excavations,” he told National Geographic News.

From the National Geographic:

Belief in vampires was rampant in the Middle Ages, mostly because the process of decomposition was not well understood.

For instance, as the human stomach decays, it releases a dark “purge fluid.” This blood-like liquid can flow freely from a corpse’s nose and mouth, so it was confused with traces of vampire victims’ blood.

The fluid sometimes moistened the burial shroud near the corpse’s mouth enough that it sagged into the jaw, creating tears in the cloth.

Since tombs were often reopened during plagues to bury other victims, Italian gravediggers saw these decomposing bodies with partially “eaten” shrouds.

Vampires were thought to be the cause of the plague, so the superstition took root that shroud-chewing was the “magical way” that vampires spread pestilence. Inserting objects—such as bricks and stones—into the mouths of vampires was thought to halt the disease.

Pretty cool discovery though huh?

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