Re: Are you sure digging him up is a good idea? Archaeologists find Bulgarian 'vampires' from Middle Ages with iron rods staked through their chests

On Jun 5, 7:34 pm, chatnoir <wolfbat3...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/7h5o2wn

headline

Are you sure digging him up is a good idea? Archaeologists find
Bulgarian 'vampires' from Middle Ages with iron rods staked through
their chests

  By Daniel Miller

If you thought vampires were simply the stuff of myth and legend - and
perhaps the odd teen horror film - think again.
Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed two skeletons from the
Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from
turning into the undead.
They are the latest in a succession of finds across western and
central Europe which shed new light on just how seriously people took
the threat of vampires and how those beliefs transformed into the
modern myth

Bulgaria's national history museum chief Bozhidar Dimitrov said:
'These two skeletons stabbed with rods illustrate a practice which was
common in some Bulgarian villages up until the first decade of the
20th century.'
 A close up of one of the 'vampire' skeletons discovered with a metal
bar through its chest
According to pagan beliefs, people who were considered bad during
their lifetimes might turn into vampires after death unless stabbed in
the chest with an iron or wooden rod before being buried.
People believed the rod would also pin them down in their graves to
prevent them from leaving at midnight and terrorising the living, the
historian explained.
According to Mr Dimitrov over 100 buried people whose corpses were
stabbed to prevent them from becoming vampires have been discovered
across Bulgaria over the years.
He added: 'I do not know why an ordinary discovery like that became so
popular. Perhaps because of the mysteriousness of the word "vampire".

'These people were believed to be evil while they were alive, and it
was believed that they would become vampires once they are dead,
continuing to torment people.'
According to Dimitrov, 'vampires' were often aristocrats and clerics.
He added: 'The curious thing is that there are no women among them.
They were not afraid of witches.'
However last month Italian researchers discovered what they believed
to be the remains of a female 'vampire' in Venice - buried with a
brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a
plague which swept the city in the 16th century.
Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence,
said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the
Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind
the spread of plagues like the Black Death  .... (cont)

Personally, I wouldn't even dig up my dear-departed wife, unless she
had a crucifix and a garlic necklace around her neck. . . .

.

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