The gruesome discovery in Poland of a kid who was only about six years old followed the recent unearthing of a woman who'd been buried by locals in a similar way.
Mystery continues to swirl around the discovery 'vampire' corpses - including a child as young as six - who were found lying face-down in a graveyard with padlocked feet.
The eerie discoveries were made by researchers digging up a 17th-century cemetery in Poland. They first found a woman who had a blade positioned across her throat as well as being left face-down and padlocked.
The next gruesome find was that of a young kid - and the discovery of that body was even more chilling, as it appeared that half of it had been stolen. Experts believe this shows that locals were particularly scared that the youngster would come back to life if they didn't take preventative measures.
The finds are something of an unsolved mystery, but experts believe these were burial rituals aimed at preventing vampires from returning to cause carnage.
If locals believed someone was a vampire, it's thought they'd bury the body face-down. It meant that if the vampires woke up, they'd end up biting the ground rather than the people above them. Padlocks, meanwhile, were added to stop them getting out of the ground.
The bodies were found in the village of Pien. The kid's skeleton was "clearly greatly feared" in particular, said excavation leader Dariusz Poliński. He added: "Maybe the child was found guilty of someone's death, an accident, or even just creating worse living conditions in general."
Vampires played a large role in eastern European mythology, and people went to great lengths to protect themselves from this evil.
People who died in particular ways, such as by suicide, were often accused of being vampires, and locals would then take steps to prevent their bodies from coming back to attack them.
"Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face-down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone," said Dariusz. The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up most likely the head would have been cut off or injured."
Comments